| Here are details of the five worst mass extinctions in
Earth’s history and their possible causes, according to paleobiologist Doug Erwin of
the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of Natural History. Erwin said
estimates of extinction rates are from the late John J. Sepkoski at the University of
Chicago: Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction, about 65 million years ago, probably
caused or aggravated by impact of several-mile-wide asteroid that created the Chicxulub
crater now hidden on the Yucatan Peninsula and beneath the Gulf of Mexico. Some argue for
other causes, including gradual climate change or flood-like volcanic eruptions of basalt
lava from India’s Deccan Traps. The extinction killed 16 percent of marine families,
47 percent of marine genera (the classification above species) and 18 percent of land
vertebrate families, including the dinosaurs.
End Triassic extinction, roughly 199 million to 214 million years ago, most
likely caused by massive floods of lava erupting from the central Atlantic magmatic
province -- an event that triggered the opening of the Atlantic Ocean. The volcanism may
have led to deadly global warming. Rocks from the eruptions now are found in the eastern
United States, eastern Brazil, North Africa and Spain. The death toll: 22 percent of
marine families, 52 percent of marine genera. Vertebrate deaths are unclear.
Permian-Triassic extinction, about 251 million years ago. Many scientists
suspect a comet or asteroid impact, although direct evidence has not been found. Others
believe the cause was flood volcanism from the Siberian Traps and related loss of oxygen
in the seas. Still others believe the impact triggered the volcanism and also may have
done so during the Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction. The Permian-Triassic catastrophe was
Earth’s worst mass extinction, killing 95 percent of all species, 53 percent of
marine families, 84 percent of marine genera and an estimated 70 percent of land species
such as plants, insects and vertebrate animals.
Late Devonian extinction, about 364 million years ago, cause unknown. It killed
22 percent of marine families and 57 percent of marine genera. Erwin said little is known
about land organisms at the time.
Ordovician-Silurian extinction, about 439 million years ago, caused by a drop in
sea levels as glaciers formed, then by rising sea levels as glaciers melted. The toll: 25
percent of marine families and 60 percent of marine genera. |