Mass Extinction Events
Mass Extinction Events
Mass extinction events are intervals in Earth's history during which unusually large proportions of the planet's species disappear in a geologically short period of time. They differ from ordinary background extinction not only in their magnitude but also in their ability to restructure ecosystems, eliminate formerly dominant groups, and alter the subsequent direction of evolution.
The fossil record contains numerous episodes of elevated extinction, but five particularly severe crises are traditionally recognized as the "Big Five": the Late Ordovician, Late Devonian, Permian–Triassic, Triassic–Jurassic, and Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinctions. Research increasingly shows that these events differed substantially in their causes, duration, selectivity, and ecological consequences.
Mass extinctions are rarely simple events caused by a single environmental disturbance. Proposed mechanisms include massive volcanic eruptions, rapid climate warming or cooling, ocean acidification, oxygen depletion, toxic euxinic waters, changes in nutrient cycling, sea-level fluctuations, habitat loss, ozone damage, and asteroid impacts. Several extinction crises appear to have resulted from interacting environmental stresses rather than one isolated cause.
Mass extinctions also represent major evolutionary turning points. They remove established ecological competitors and predators, create vacant ecological niches, and permit surviving groups to diversify. Recovery of species numbers can occur relatively rapidly in some cases, while restoration of complex ecological networks may require millions of years.
The Late Ordovician Mass Extinction
The Late Ordovician extinction occurred approximately 444 million years ago and primarily affected marine organisms. At the time, most complex life existed in the oceans, making changes in marine environments particularly consequential.
Evidence links the crisis to major climatic and oceanographic disturbances. Global cooling and the development of extensive glaciation reduced shallow-water habitats as sea levels fell. Later environmental changes associated with deglaciation produced additional stresses.
Research also points to widespread changes in ocean oxygenation. Oxygen-poor and locally sulfidic waters appear to have expanded during and after extinction pulses. Volcanic activity may have contributed nutrients and other substances to the oceans, altering productivity, carbon burial, climate, and marine chemistry.
The Late Ordovician crisis appears to have occurred in multiple phases rather than as one instantaneous biological collapse. Different groups experienced varying levels of extinction depending on geographic range, habitat, environmental tolerance, and ecological characteristics.
The Late Devonian Extinctions
The Late Devonian biodiversity crisis differed from some other mass extinctions because it consisted of a prolonged series of extinction episodes rather than a single catastrophic event.
Major episodes included the Kellwasser events near the Frasnian–Famennian boundary and the later Hangenberg extinction near the Devonian–Carboniferous boundary. These events severely affected marine ecosystems and contributed to the collapse of the enormous reef systems that had flourished during the Devonian.
Expansion of deeply rooted terrestrial plants may have played an important role in changing Earth's biogeochemical cycles. Increased weathering and nutrient runoff from land could have stimulated marine productivity, eventually contributing to oxygen depletion and widespread anoxia.
Geochemical evidence indicates repeated expansion of oxygen-poor and chemically toxic waters. Climate fluctuations, changes in sea level, volcanism, nutrient cycling, and astronomical forcing have also been investigated as contributing factors.
The Hangenberg extinction profoundly reorganized vertebrate evolution. Numerous fish lineages disappeared, predator-prey relationships changed, and surviving vertebrate groups entered new ecological opportunities. The resulting evolutionary bottleneck influenced the structure of later vertebrate communities.
The Permian–Triassic Great Dying
The Permian–Triassic extinction approximately 252 million years ago was the most severe known mass extinction in Earth's history and is commonly called the "Great Dying."
The event caused extraordinary losses in marine ecosystems and major disruption on land. Entire ecological communities collapsed, and the reconstruction of complex ecosystems required millions of years.
A large body of evidence connects the extinction with the Siberian Traps, one of the largest episodes of volcanic activity known from Earth's geological record. Massive eruptions and intrusive magma released enormous quantities of greenhouse gases and other substances into the atmosphere.
The resulting environmental cascade included rapid global warming, disruption of the carbon cycle, intensified weathering, nutrient enrichment, ocean oxygen loss, expansion of toxic euxinic waters, acidification, and other forms of environmental stress.
Some research suggests that intrusive magma interacting with carbon-rich sediments may have released particularly large quantities of greenhouse gases. Volatile-rich material beneath Siberia could have further amplified the climatic effects of the eruptions.
The environmental deterioration extended beyond the oceans. Wildfires, soil erosion, disruptions of vegetation, toxic microbial blooms, and possibly substantial damage to the ozone layer occurred around the extinction interval.
Marine extinction appears to have occurred in major pulses. Terrestrial ecosystems did not necessarily collapse at precisely the same time as marine ecosystems, demonstrating that the Great Dying was a complex sequence of interconnected environmental and biological crises.
Recovery was exceptionally slow. Although some organisms expanded quickly into vacant habitats, restoring complex food webs and stable ecosystems took several million years.
The Triassic–Jurassic Mass Extinction
The Triassic–Jurassic extinction occurred approximately 201 million years ago and eliminated numerous marine and terrestrial organisms. The crisis helped create ecological opportunities that contributed to the dominance of dinosaurs during the Jurassic.
Evidence strongly associates the extinction with the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province, or CAMP, one of the largest volcanic provinces in Earth history. CAMP volcanism occurred as the supercontinent Pangaea began to break apart and the Atlantic Ocean started forming.
High-precision geological dating places major volcanic episodes extremely close to the extinction interval. Large quantities of carbon dioxide and other gases released by eruptions and magma intrusions likely disturbed the global carbon cycle and climate.
The environmental consequences included rapid greenhouse warming, ocean acidification, oxygen depletion, and expansion of hydrogen-sulfide-rich marine waters. Mercury and iridium anomalies provide additional evidence of intense volcanic activity surrounding the extinction.
Unlike the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction, available evidence generally favors volcanism rather than a large asteroid impact as the principal driver of the Triassic–Jurassic crisis.
The disappearance of established competitors allowed surviving organisms to expand into newly available ecological niches. Dinosaurs subsequently became the dominant large terrestrial vertebrates across much of the Jurassic and Cretaceous.
The Cretaceous–Paleogene Mass Extinction
The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction approximately 66 million years ago is the most famous mass extinction because it eliminated all non-avian dinosaurs along with numerous marine and terrestrial organisms.
The central cause was the impact of a large asteroid near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula of Mexico. The resulting Chicxulub crater provides direct geological evidence of the event.
The asteroid-impact hypothesis emerged after scientists discovered unusually high concentrations of iridium in rocks deposited at the extinction boundary. Iridium is relatively rare in Earth's crust but substantially more abundant in many extraterrestrial objects.
Later research identified the Chicxulub crater and strengthened the connection between the impact and mass extinction. Geological evidence from around the world now supports the asteroid impact as the primary trigger of the K–Pg catastrophe.
The impact launched enormous quantities of dust, vaporized rock, sulfur compounds, and other material into the atmosphere. These substances reduced sunlight reaching Earth's surface and produced a period of darkness and global cooling.
Photosynthesis declined sharply, disrupting terrestrial and marine food webs. Ocean acidification and other chemical changes added additional environmental stress.
The location of the impact may have made the consequences unusually severe because Chicxulub struck rocks containing hydrocarbons and sulfur-rich minerals capable of producing large quantities of climate-altering material.
Not every ecosystem or organism responded identically. Some fish communities remained relatively productive, while certain reptiles, mammals, birds, snakes, and other groups survived and later diversified.
Survival of the extinction created enormous evolutionary opportunities. Mammals expanded into ecological niches previously occupied by dinosaurs, surviving birds diversified, snakes spread geographically, and marine ecosystems underwent extensive reorganization.
The evolutionary consequences of the extinction remain detectable in the distribution and diversity of modern organisms.
Survival and Ecological Recovery
Surviving a mass extinction does not necessarily mean that ecosystems immediately return to their previous condition. Biological recovery can proceed through several stages.
Immediately after severe extinction events, simplified "disaster ecosystems" may become widespread. Opportunistic organisms capable of tolerating disturbed environments can dominate while ecological networks remain relatively simple.
Species diversity may begin recovering before ecosystem complexity does. Food webs, predator-prey relationships, reefs, and other highly structured ecological systems can require much longer periods to rebuild.
Mass extinction also changes the rules governing evolutionary success. Characteristics that provided advantages during ordinary ecological conditions may become less important during catastrophic environmental change, while traits such as broad environmental tolerance, flexible feeding strategies, small body size, or particular physiological adaptations can become crucial.
Geographic distribution sometimes influences survival, although having a broad range does not guarantee protection from global environmental disturbances.
The extinction of dominant groups creates ecological opportunities for survivors. Evolutionary radiations following mass extinction events can produce new groups, lifestyles, and ecosystem structures that differ substantially from those that existed before the crisis.
Causes and Common Patterns
Although the Big Five extinctions had different immediate triggers, several recurring mechanisms appear throughout the fossil record.
Rapid climate change is one of the strongest recurring patterns. Both extreme warming and cooling can exceed the physiological tolerances of organisms and alter the geographic distribution of suitable habitats.
Ocean oxygen depletion is another frequent feature. Warmer oceans contain less dissolved oxygen, while increased nutrient input can stimulate biological productivity that further consumes oxygen when organic matter decomposes.
Under especially severe conditions, euxinic waters containing hydrogen sulfide can expand into habitats occupied by marine organisms.
Large volcanic provinces repeatedly coincide with extinction events. Volcanism can release carbon dioxide, sulfur compounds, metals, aerosols, and other substances capable of altering climate and ocean chemistry.
Changes in nutrient cycling, soil erosion, weathering, sea level, atmospheric chemistry, and ecological interactions can magnify the initial disturbance.
The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction demonstrates that extraterrestrial impacts can also generate mass extinction when they produce environmental effects on a global scale.
Mass extinction therefore appears to result not simply from the triggering event itself but from the speed, magnitude, and interconnected nature of the environmental changes that follow.
Mass Extinction and Evolution
Mass extinction is destructive at the level of existing biodiversity but also profoundly influential in shaping subsequent evolution.
When dominant organisms disappear, surviving species encounter reduced competition and newly available ecological resources. These conditions can generate adaptive radiations in which surviving lineages rapidly diversify.
The Permian–Triassic extinction transformed both marine and terrestrial ecosystems. The Triassic–Jurassic extinction helped establish conditions under which dinosaurs became dominant terrestrial vertebrates. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction opened ecological opportunities that contributed to the diversification of mammals and modern birds.
Extinction selectivity is therefore important. Mass extinctions do not simply remove a random percentage of species. Environmental conditions favor some biological traits and disadvantage others.
The groups that survive influence the biological structure of the world that follows. Consequently, mass extinctions can redirect evolutionary history for tens or hundreds of millions of years.
The Modern Biodiversity Crisis and a Possible Sixth Mass Extinction
Modern biodiversity decline has generated debate over whether Earth is entering a sixth mass extinction.
Human activities are accelerating species extinction and reducing populations across many groups. Major pressures include habitat destruction, land-use change, climate change, overexploitation, pollution, invasive species, and other transformations of natural ecosystems.
Studies comparing modern extinction rates with fossil background rates generally conclude that current extinction rates are substantially elevated.
However, the term "sixth mass extinction" can refer to both the current trajectory and the eventual magnitude of biodiversity loss. The number of species already extinct has not yet reached the proportions associated with the largest ancient mass extinctions, but continued losses could eventually produce such conditions.
Population declines may provide an earlier warning than species extinction alone. Many species remain technically extant while losing much of their historical abundance and geographic range.
This process can weaken ecosystems before formal extinction occurs because ecological functions disappear when populations become too small or geographically restricted.
Invertebrates and less-studied organisms may also experience substantial losses that are poorly represented when extinction assessments focus mainly on vertebrates.
The fossil record demonstrates that biodiversity can eventually recover after catastrophic extinction, but recovery is measured in millions of years rather than human generations. From the perspective of human civilization, ecosystem losses produced by a modern mass extinction would therefore be effectively irreversible.
Lessons from Earth's Mass Extinctions
The geological record shows that ecosystems can tolerate considerable environmental variation but become vulnerable when change is unusually rapid, severe, and global.
Mass extinction commonly results from interacting pressures rather than one environmental variable. Warming can reduce ocean oxygen, alter nutrient cycles, increase physiological stress, change habitats, and amplify other ecological disturbances.
The fossil record also demonstrates that ecological collapse can begin well before the final disappearance of species. Declining abundance, shrinking geographic ranges, simplified food webs, and the loss of ecological functions can therefore serve as important warning signals.
Recovery following mass extinction does not restore the former biological world. Extinct lineages do not return, and surviving organisms create new ecological communities through subsequent evolution.
Understanding ancient mass extinctions consequently provides more than a record of past catastrophes. These events offer natural experiments showing how climate, oceans, atmosphere, geology, and biological systems interact during periods of extreme environmental disruption.
Conclusion
Earth's mass extinctions were among the most consequential events in the history of life. The Late Ordovician extinction was closely associated with climatic cooling, glaciation, sea-level change, and oceanic disruption. The Late Devonian crisis unfolded through multiple extinction pulses involving major changes in nutrient cycling, marine oxygen levels, climate, and ecosystems. The Permian–Triassic Great Dying was closely connected with Siberian Traps volcanism and an extraordinary cascade of warming, ocean deoxygenation, chemical disruption, and ecological collapse. The Triassic–Jurassic extinction coincided with Central Atlantic Magmatic Province volcanism and profound changes in atmospheric and oceanic conditions. The Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction resulted primarily from the Chicxulub asteroid impact and the global environmental catastrophe that followed.
Despite their different triggers, these events share important patterns. Rapid environmental change, disruption of climate and ocean chemistry, habitat loss, and breakdown of ecological relationships repeatedly accompany severe extinction.
Mass extinction also alters the direction of evolution. The organisms that survive become the founders of subsequent ecosystems, while ecological opportunities created by extinction allow new groups to diversify.
Modern biodiversity losses differ from ancient events in one important respect: they are being driven largely by the activities of a single species. Whether the current crisis ultimately reaches the formal magnitude of the Big Five remains uncertain, but evidence of accelerating extinction, population decline, habitat destruction, and ecological disruption demonstrates that global biodiversity is already undergoing substantial change.
The history of ancient mass extinctions shows both the resilience and vulnerability of life. Life as a whole has repeatedly survived global catastrophe, but individual species, ecosystems, and evolutionary lineages have not. Recovery can occur, but on timescales vastly longer than those relevant to human societies.
General Mass Extinction Research
1. | Cindy V. Looy | Current Biology | 2026-06-08
Reviews how land plants responded to Earth's major extinction crises and why terrestrial vegetation sometimes followed different extinction patterns from animals.
2. | Michael J. Benton et al. | Fossils and Earth Time | 2026
Surveys the major Phanerozoic mass extinctions and explains how each crisis was followed by evolutionary radiations that substantially reorganized ecosystems.
3. | Louise Lerner | University of Chicago News | 2025-06-02
Examines new evidence about which ecological strategies helped marine organisms survive and diversify after the end-Cretaceous extinction.
4. | Charles R. Marshall | Cambridge Prisms: Extinction | 2023
Reviews the status of the traditional “Big Five” mass extinctions four decades after their statistical recognition and examines how later fossil data have changed their interpretation.
5. | Pedro J. Markwick et al. | Nature | 2022-07-13
Examines how marine biodiversity hotspots developed and recovered following major extinction events throughout the Phanerozoic.
6. | Tammana Begum | Natural History Museum | 2022
Explains the definition of mass extinction, summarizes the Big Five and compares today's biodiversity crisis with extinction rates recorded in deep time.
7. | Haijun Song et al. | Nature Communications | 2021-08-04
Examines the relationship between the magnitude of global temperature change and extinction intensity, identifying climatic thresholds associated with major biodiversity crises.
8. | Adrian L. Melott et al. | Scientific Reports | 2019-04-15
Analyzes long-term patterns and possible periodicities in marine biodiversity and extinction through the Phanerozoic.
9. | Louise Lerner | University of Chicago News | 2018-01-08
Reports research showing that mass extinctions can eliminate enormous numbers of species while leaving some major ecological lifestyles represented by survivors.
10. | Emma M. Dunne et al. | Nature Communications | 2017-10-20
Shows how the Permian–Triassic and Triassic–Jurassic extinctions temporarily produced unusually widespread, cosmopolitan terrestrial faunas.
11. | William J. Foster & Richard J. Twitchett | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2016
Investigates ecological selectivity during mass extinction and shows how environmental stress can simplify marine ecosystems.
12. | Steven M. Stanley | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2016-10-18
Recalculates the magnitude of several major marine mass extinctions after separating catastrophic losses from normal background extinction.
13. | Pincelli M. Hull, Simon A. F. Darroch & Douglas H. Erwin | Nature | 2015-12-16
Argues that widespread declines in formerly abundant species may provide an important early warning of an approaching mass-extinction-scale ecological crisis.
14. | Jim Shelton | Yale News | 2015-12-16
Discusses the concept of "mass rarity" as an alternative way to recognize ecological deterioration before species actually become extinct.
15. | Seth Finnegan et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2015
Uses fossil marine organisms to identify biological characteristics that predict vulnerability to climatic and environmental change.
Uses high-precision dating to demonstrate the extremely rapid timing of the end-Permian mass extinction.
17. | Seth Finnegan et al. | Science | 2012
Demonstrates that physiological traits and environmental preferences strongly influenced which marine organisms survived ancient extinction events.
18. | Jonathan L. Payne et al. | Science | 2008-10-24
Examines extreme tropical ocean temperatures and environmental stress surrounding the Permian–Triassic transition.
19. | Richard K. Bambach | Paleobiology | 2006
Evaluates Phanerozoic biodiversity crises and distinguishes true mass extinctions from less severe episodes of elevated extinction.
20. | Howard J. Falcon-Lang et al. | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 2006
Reviews the paleoclimatic, ecological and environmental evidence scientists use to reconstruct the causes and consequences of ancient mass extinctions.
Reassesses Phanerozoic extinction intensity and shows that the severity of extinction crises varies substantially depending on the statistical method used.
22. | David Jablonski | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2001-05-08
Explores how mass extinctions reshape evolution by selectively eliminating lineages and opening ecological opportunities for survivors.
23. | Douglas H. Erwin | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2001-05-08
Reviews how ecosystems recover after mass extinctions and explains why rebuilding ecological complexity can take millions of years.
Compares modern biodiversity losses with past mass extinctions and discusses what the fossil record suggests about ecological recovery.
25. | Richard K. Bambach | Geological Society of America | 1994
Discusses the ecological severity and selectivity of major marine extinction episodes in the fossil record.
26. | J. John Sepkoski Jr. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 1989
Examines long-term extinction patterns and evaluates how catastrophic extinction events differ from ordinary background turnover.
27. | Michael L. McKinney | Nature | 1987-01-08
Investigates whether mass extinctions differ fundamentally from background extinction and how extinction vulnerability varies among marine organisms.
28. | Michael J. Benton | Nature | 1985-08-29
Examines the terrestrial vertebrate fossil record to assess whether recognized mass extinction episodes are statistically distinguishable from background losses.
29. | David M. Raup & J. John Sepkoski Jr. | Science | 1982-03-19
Provides the landmark statistical analysis identifying unusually severe extinction episodes in the marine fossil record and helping establish the concept of the “Big Five.”
Late Ordovician Mass Extinction
30. | Annette D. George et al. | Nature Communications | 2026
Finds globally recurring phosphorus pulses associated with ocean anoxia and biodiversity loss during the Late Ordovician and Late Devonian crises.
31. | He Zhao et al. | Nature Communications | 2025-12-12
Investigates how volcanism and enhanced basalt weathering may have contributed to long-term Ordovician cooling before the extinction.
32. | Xianqing Jing et al. | Nature Communications | 2022-12-26
Proposes rapid true polar wander as a mechanism contributing to Ordovician glaciation, shifting habitats and mass extinction.
33. | Jack Longman et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2021-12-02
Links volcanic nutrient inputs, ocean productivity, climatic cooling and extinction during the Late Ordovician.
34. | Dongping Hu et al. | Nature Communications | 2020-05-08
Uses sulfur isotope anomalies to connect major volcanic activity with environmental disruption during the Late Ordovician extinction.
35. | Richard G. Stockey et al. | Nature Communications | 2020-04-14
Finds evidence that widespread oxygen-poor and sulfidic ocean conditions persisted into the Early Silurian following the second Ordovician extinction pulse.
36. | Seth A. Young et al. | Geology | 2019
Examines ocean oxygenation changes and their potential connection to the two major extinction pulses near the Ordovician–Silurian boundary.
37. | David S. Jones et al. | Geology | 2018
Investigates mercury enrichments as evidence for volcanic activity surrounding the Late Ordovician mass extinction.
38. | David S. Jones et al. | Geology | 2017
Provides geochemical evidence connecting volcanic activity and environmental change near the end of the Ordovician.
39. | Lixia Li et al. | Scientific Reports | 2015-11-05
Describes an unusual sponge assemblage from South China that survived across the end-Ordovician mass extinction.
40. | Thijs R. A. Vandenbroucke et al. | Nature Communications | 2015-08-25
Uses malformed fossil plankton to investigate toxic metal contamination associated with Paleozoic environmental crises.
41. | Matthew R. Saltzman et al. | Geology | 2015
Uses isotope records to reconstruct climatic and oceanographic changes surrounding the Ordovician extinction.
42. | David A. T. Harper et al. | Earth-Science Reviews | 2014
Reviews biological patterns, climatic change and proposed causes of the Late Ordovician mass extinction.
43. | Seth Finnegan et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2014
Links cooling and habitat loss to selective marine extinction during the first pulse of the Late Ordovician biodiversity crisis.
Late Devonian Mass Extinctions
44. | Grzegorz Racki et al. | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 2026-09-01
Reviews evidence for a volcanic trigger of the Kellwasser and Hangenberg crises and evaluates competing environmental explanations.
45. | Matthew S. Smart et al. | Communications Earth & Environment | 2023-11-29
Models how the expansion of rooted land plants may have increased phosphorus runoff, marine anoxia and Late Devonian extinction.
46. | Swapan K. Sahoo et al. | Nature | 2023-03-08
Reconstructs the spread of toxic euxinic water across the Williston Basin during a sequence of Late Devonian extinction events.
47. | Tom C. L. Bridge et al. | Scientific Reports | 2022-01-26
Studies the functional consequences of the collapse of the enormous reef ecosystems that flourished before the Late Devonian extinction.
48. | Jaleigh Q. Pier et al. | Scientific Reports | 2021-12-21
Shows how climatic change and geographic isolation affected extinction risk among Late Devonian brachiopods.
49. | Thomas J. Algeo et al. | Global and Planetary Change | 2019
Reviews sedimentological and geochemical evidence surrounding the Late Devonian Kellwasser extinction.
50. | Matthias De Vleeschouwer et al. | Nature Communications | 2018-01-09
Finds evidence that astronomical cycles helped pace climatic changes associated with the Frasnian–Famennian extinction.
51. | Thomas J. Algeo et al. | Geology | 2013
Examines links among terrestrial vegetation, nutrient runoff, ocean chemistry and Devonian marine extinction.
52. | Thomas J. Algeo & Stephen E. Scheckler | Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences | 2012
Reviews evidence surrounding environmental deterioration and extinction during the Late Devonian.
53. | Lauren C. Sallan et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2011
Investigates dramatic ecological changes following the Hangenberg mass extinction.
54. | Rob Mitchum | University of Chicago News | 2011-05-02
Describes how removal of predators during the Hangenberg extinction profoundly reorganized Devonian aquatic ecosystems.
55. | University of Chicago News | University of Chicago | 2010-05-19
Explains how a major Devonian extinction reset vertebrate diversity and helped establish the evolutionary framework for later vertebrates.
56. | Lauren C. Sallan & Michael I. Coates | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2010
Documents a major vertebrate biodiversity bottleneck associated with the end-Devonian Hangenberg extinction.
Reviews environmental changes and biological losses associated with the Devonian–Carboniferous Hangenberg crisis.
58. | Grzegorz Racki | Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy | 2005
Reviews competing explanations for Late Devonian global environmental crises and emphasizes their prolonged and multi-causal character.
59. | George R. McGhee Jr. | Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy | 2005
Uses quantitative modeling to evaluate proposed climatic, oceanic and extraterrestrial explanations for Late Devonian extinction.
60. | Anthony Hallam & Paul B. Wignall | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 2002-06-20
Reassesses the severity, timing and possible causes of Devonian extinction episodes and cautions against treating the crisis as a single event.
Permian–Triassic "Great Dying"
61. | Natural History Museum | Natural History Museum | 2026-08-03
Describes a remarkably preserved 254-million-year-old fish that provides a snapshot of vertebrate life shortly before the Great Dying.
62. | Shihan Li et al. | Nature Communications | 2026-06-19
Investigates why intense end-Permian global warming lagged behind the initial disruption of the carbon cycle.
63. | Annabel L. Nicholls et al. | npj Biodiversity | 2026-01-31
Reviews the timing and ecological structure of marine recovery after Earth's largest known mass extinction.
64. | Zi-Heng Li et al. | Nature Communications | 2025-04-18
Models how ecological collapse destabilized the Earth system and caused repeated carbon-cycle and ocean-redox oscillations during recovery.
65. | Monica Alejandra Gomez Correa | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2024-05-01
Discusses how ostracod fossils are being used to reconstruct temperature, oxygen and acidity during the end-Permian crisis.
66. | Qiong Wu et al. | Science Advances | 2024-01-31
Finds that terrestrial extinction in tropical ecosystems occurred later than the principal marine end-Permian extinction.
67. | Ryosuke Saito et al. | Nature Communications | 2023-04-14
Finds that wildfires, soil erosion and marine euxinia developed in a rapid sequence immediately before the main end-Permian extinction pulse.
68. | Yuyang Wu et al. | Science Advances | 2023-02-15
Distinguishes thermogenic carbon release from later volcanic carbon dioxide emissions during the end-Permian environmental crisis.
69. | Feng Liu et al. | Science Advances | 2023-01-06
Finds fossil pollen evidence of unusually intense ultraviolet-B radiation during the Great Dying, consistent with substantial ozone-layer damage.
70. | Timothy Chapman et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2022-05-09
Examines whether pulses of explosive arc volcanism helped initiate climate instability before the end-Permian catastrophe.
71. | Jacopo Dal Corso et al. | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2022-02-22
Provides a comprehensive review of volcanic, climatic, atmospheric and oceanic processes responsible for the Permian–Triassic extinction.
72. | Louise Lerner | University of Chicago News | 2021-12-01
Uses fossil bivalves spanning the Great Dying to show how evolutionary models can misrepresent extinction and recovery.
73. | Dominik Hülse et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2021-10-28
Models how extreme warming drove nutrient recycling, oxygen depletion and euxinia during the end-Permian marine extinction.
74. | Chris Mays et al. | Nature Communications | 2021-09-17
Finds that toxic microbial blooms may have delayed freshwater ecosystem recovery after the end-Permian extinction.
75. | Laura E. Wasylenki et al. | Nature Communications | 2021
Uses nickel isotope evidence to connect aerosols emitted by Siberian Traps volcanism with the end-Permian environmental catastrophe.
76. | Robert Sanders | Berkeley News | 2020-03-25
Reports evidence that terrestrial ecosystem disruption began hundreds of thousands of years before the main marine Permian extinction.
77. | Robert A. Gastaldo | Nature | 2019-03-01
Discusses evidence that terrestrial plants responded differently from marine animals during the end-Permian crisis.
78. | Hendrik Nowak, Elke Schneebeli-Hermann & Evelyn Kustatscher | Nature Communications | 2019-01-23
Challenges the idea that land plants suffered a global mass extinction at the Permian–Triassic boundary.
79. | Michael W. Broadley et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2018-08-27
Shows how volatile-rich material beneath Siberia may have amplified the climatic consequences of Siberian Traps volcanism.
80. | Seth D. Burgess, James D. Muirhead & Samuel A. Bowring | Nature Communications | 2017-07-31
Links the beginning of Siberian Traps sill emplacement closely with the timing of the end-Permian extinction.
81. | M. O. Clarkson et al. | Nature Communications | 2016-07-19
Reconstructs changing oxygen conditions in the oceans during the Permian extinction and its prolonged recovery.
82. | Seth D. Burgess & Samuel A. Bowring | Science Advances | 2015-11-25
Provides high-precision dates showing extensive Siberian Traps magmatism immediately before, during and after the end-Permian extinction.
83. | Haijun Song et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2013-01
Finds that the end-Permian marine extinction occurred in two major pulses separated by an interval of partial recovery.
84. | Zhong-Qiang Chen & Michael J. Benton | Nature Geoscience | 2012-05-27
Reviews evidence that rebuilding complex ecosystems after the Great Dying required roughly eight to nine million years.
85. | Jonathan L. Payne & Matthew E. Clapham | Annual Review of Earth and Planetary Sciences | 2012
Provides a major review of the causes, severity and ecological consequences of the end-Permian extinction.
86. | Benjamin A. Black et al. | Science | 2010
Investigates mechanisms through which Siberian Traps volcanism could have destabilized Earth's climate and biosphere.
87. | Michael J. Benton, V. P. Tverdokhlebov & M. V. Surkov | Nature | 2004-11-04
Documents major restructuring of terrestrial vertebrate communities across the Permian–Triassic boundary in Russia.
88. | Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley | 1995-09-20
Reports early high-precision dating connecting the world's largest extinction with immense Siberian volcanic eruptions.
89. | Douglas H. Erwin | Nature | 1994-01-20
Reviews geological and paleontological evidence concerning the causes and consequences of the Permian–Triassic extinction.
Triassic–Jurassic Mass Extinction
90. | Benjamin J. W. Mills et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2023-11-27
Finds severe episodes of oxygen-depleted, sulfidic shallow seas during the end-Triassic extinction.
91. | Joshua H. F. L. Davies et al. | Scientific Reports | 2023
Provides new high-precision dates for Central Atlantic Magmatic Province volcanism and reassesses its relationship to the end-Triassic extinction.
92. | Lawrence H. Tanner, Frank T. Kyte & John H. Puffer | Scientific Reports | 2020-11-11
Investigates widespread iridium anomalies around the Triassic–Jurassic boundary and their volcanic rather than impact-related origin.
93. | Henrik H. Svensen et al. | Scientific Reports | 2018
Examines whether massive sill intrusions into Brazilian sedimentary basins released enough greenhouse gases to help cause the end-Triassic crisis.
94. | Joshua H. F. L. Davies et al. | Nature Communications | 2017-05-31
Dates intrusive activity in the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province and links it directly to the beginning of the end-Triassic extinction.
95. | Alyson M. Thibodeau et al. | Nature Communications | 2016-04-06
Uses mercury as a volcanic proxy to show that substantial biological recovery followed the cessation of CAMP eruptions.
96. | Alexander M. Dunhill & Matthew A. Wills | Nature Communications | 2015-08-11
Finds that having a wide geographic range did not necessarily protect terrestrial vertebrates during the end-Triassic crisis.
97. | Terrence J. Blackburn et al. | Science | 2013-05-24
Uses high-precision geochronology to tightly link CAMP volcanism with the end-Triassic extinction.
98. | Sylvain Richoz et al. | Nature Geoscience | 2012-08-12
Presents evidence that hydrogen-sulfide-rich waters poisoned shallow marine environments following the end-Triassic extinction.
99. | Jessica H. Whiteside et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2011
Reconstructs environmental and ecological disruption during the Triassic–Jurassic transition.
100. | Jessica H. Whiteside et al. | Science | 2007
Links major carbon-cycle disruption at the Triassic–Jurassic boundary with volcanic activity and mass extinction.
101. | David Beerling | Nature | 2002-01-24
Discusses evidence for a sharp atmospheric carbon dioxide increase during the end-Triassic extinction.
102. | Robert Sanders | UC Berkeley | 1999-04-22
Reports evidence connecting enormous Central Atlantic Magmatic Province eruptions with the end-Triassic extinction and breakup of Pangaea.
Cretaceous–Paleogene Mass Extinction
103. | Mike Cummings | Yale News | 2026-07-17
Investigates whether the disappearance of large marine predators after the asteroid impact directly triggered the evolutionary rise of tunas.
104. | Rui Ying et al. | Nature | 2026-05-27
Uses ecological modeling to show how prolonged darkness and organism body size shaped marine survival after the Chicxulub impact.
105. | Mike Cummings | Yale News | 2025-07-11
Describes evidence that some night-lizard lineages survived surprisingly close to the Chicxulub impact zone.
106. | Joanna V. Morgan et al. | Nature Reviews Earth & Environment | 2022-04-12
Reviews Chicxulub crater formation and the dust, sulfate aerosols, darkness and cooling believed to have caused the K–Pg extinction.
107. | Melanie A. D. During et al. | Nature | 2022
Uses fossil fish growth patterns to conclude that the Chicxulub impact occurred during Northern Hemisphere spring.
108. | Catherine Klein et al. | Nature Communications | 2021-09-14
Shows that surviving snake lineages rapidly diversified and dispersed after the ecological disruption of the K–Pg extinction.
109. | Fabien L. Condamine et al. | Nature Communications | 2021-06-29
Argues that several major dinosaur groups were already declining before the asteroid impact, contributing to debate over extinction selectivity.
110. | Robert Sanders | Berkeley News | 2021-02-24
Describes fossils showing that archaic primates diversified within roughly 100,000 years of the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs.
111. | Jim Shelton | Yale News | 2019-10-21
Reports direct fossil evidence for rapid ocean acidification immediately after the Chicxulub asteroid impact.
112. | Sarah A. Alvarez et al. | Nature | 2019-09-25
Shows that marine ecosystem functions and species diversity recovered at different rates after the end-Cretaceous extinction.
113. | Robert Sanders | Berkeley News | 2019-03-29
Describes the Tanis fossil deposit, which records animals killed shortly after effects of the Chicxulub impact reached North America.
114. | Alessandro Chiarenza et al. | Nature Communications | 2019-03-06
Finds little evidence that deteriorating climate alone was driving dinosaurs toward extinction before Chicxulub.
115. | Sean P. S. Gulick et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2019
Reconstructs the first day of the Cenozoic from rocks drilled inside the Chicxulub impact crater.
116. | Tyler R. Lyson et al. | Science | 2019
Documents rapid mammalian and plant recovery during the first million years after the K–Pg extinction.
117. | Robert Sanders | Berkeley News | 2018-11-13
Examines why modern-bird ancestors survived the K–Pg catastrophe while once-diverse enantiornithine birds disappeared.
118. | Christopher M. Lowery et al. | Nature | 2018-05-30
Shows that biological activity returned to the Chicxulub crater surprisingly quickly following the asteroid impact.
119. | Kunio Kaiho & Naga Oshima | Scientific Reports | 2017-11-09
Argues that Chicxulub struck an unusually hydrocarbon-rich region, greatly increasing the probability that the impact would cause global mass extinction.
120. | James D. Witts et al. | Nature Communications | 2016-05-26
Finds a rapid and severe K–Pg marine extinction in Antarctica, supporting a catastrophic global trigger rather than gradual decline.
121. | Nicholas R. Longrich et al. | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2016
Studies mammalian diversification in the aftermath of the dinosaur extinction and the opening of newly vacant ecological niches.
122. | Jim Shelton | Yale News | 2014-08-25
Uses fossil fish teeth and shark scales to show that some Pacific fish communities remained productive despite the K–Pg catastrophe.
123. | Peter Schulte et al. | Science | 2010-03-05
Synthesizes evidence from around the world concluding that the Chicxulub asteroid impact triggered the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction.
124. | University of Chicago News | University of Chicago | 2009-02-05
Demonstrates how the evolutionary consequences of the end-Cretaceous extinction remain visible in the geographic distribution of modern marine organisms.
125. | Luis W. Alvarez et al. | Science | 1980-06-06
Presents the landmark asteroid-impact hypothesis based on anomalously high iridium concentrations at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary.
Extinction Survivors and Ecological Recovery
126. | William A. Foster & Richard J. Twitchett | Science | 2012
Examines how surviving organisms repopulated severely disrupted ecosystems following catastrophic environmental change.
127. | Wolfgang Kiessling et al. | Science | 2010
Examines how reef ecosystems repeatedly collapsed and recovered across major environmental crises in Earth history.
128. | Richard J. Twitchett | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2008
Reviews evidence that ecosystem recovery following major extinction can lag millions of years behind the initial return of species diversity.
129. | David Jablonski | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2008
Explores how extinction selectivity influences the evolutionary structure of surviving lineages over millions of years.
130. | Richard J. Twitchett | Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology | 2006
Reviews how trace fossils and ecological structure reveal the pace of marine ecosystem recovery after extinction.
131. | David Jablonski | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2004
Shows how mass extinctions can alter evolutionary rules by changing which biological traits confer survival advantages.
132. | David J. Bottjer et al. | Science | 2003
Examines unusually simple “disaster” ecosystems that flourished in the ecological vacuum following major extinction events.
Modern Biodiversity Crisis and a Possible Sixth Mass Extinction
133. | Natural History Museum | Natural History Museum | 2024
Explains how human transformation of ecosystems, climate and landscapes connects the Anthropocene concept with accelerating global extinction.
134. | Robert H. Cowie, Philippe Bouchet & Benoît Fontaine | Proceedings of the Royal Society B | 2022
Argues that focusing primarily on vertebrates significantly underestimates the magnitude of the developing sixth mass extinction.
135. | Jim Shelton | Yale News | 2021-04-27
Argues that species extinction counts alone underestimate the scale of modern ecological disruption and proposes broader measures of biosphere change.
Shows that hundreds of vertebrate species are now extremely close to extinction and warns of cascading ecological consequences.
137. | Danwei Huang et al. | Scientific Reports | 2020
Uses the fossil history of reef-building corals to investigate evolutionary traits associated with survival through ancient mass extinctions and their relevance to modern environmental change.
138. | David Tilman et al. | Current Biology | 2020
Examines the major human pressures driving modern biodiversity decline and considers how preventing extinction differs from recovering ecosystems after ancient mass extinctions.
139. | Andrew Purvis et al. | Nature | 2019
Examines global biodiversity decline and discusses how habitat transformation and human activity are accelerating extinction risk.
140. | Mark C. Urban | Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences | 2018
Reviews evidence that climate change is increasingly interacting with habitat loss and other pressures to raise extinction risk.
Documents massive reductions in vertebrate populations and geographic ranges, describing them as biological annihilation preceding many species extinctions.
142. | Gerardo Ceballos et al. | Science Advances | 2015-06-19
Uses conservative extinction-rate estimates to argue that modern vertebrate species losses substantially exceed natural background rates.
143. | Stuart L. Pimm et al. | Science | 2014-05-30
Estimates current global extinction rates and finds that they are substantially higher than natural background levels.
144. | Anthony D. Barnosky et al. | Nature | 2011-03-03
Compares current animal extinctions with the Big Five and evaluates whether modern biodiversity loss is approaching mass-extinction magnitude.
145. | Robert Sanders | Berkeley News | 2011-03-02
Compares modern extinction rates with the fossil record and concludes that a sixth mass extinction remains avoidable but could develop if losses continue.
