The oldest known mass extinction
Even before the Cambrian period, biology’s “reset” button was being pushed
Mass extinction is, as it were, a way of life. Earth’s history has seen several. The most famous, 66m years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, did for most of the dinosaurs (only a few of the feathered variety, now referred to as “birds”, slipped through). The worst was 252m years ago between the Permian and Triassic periods, when 80% of marine species, as well as a lot of terrestrial ones, snuffed it.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “The earliest mass extinction”
From the November 12th 2022 edition
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