Researchers have discovered that the end-Permian mass extinction was much faster and shorter than previously believed, according to a Massachusetts Institute of Technology press release.
Some 252 million years ago, the biggest mass extinction of animal life took place on Earth, which destroyed 96 percent of marine species and 70 percent of life on land.
A number of theories have been thought up in an attempt to establish the reason for the extinction, including an asteroid impact, volcanic eruptions, or a cataclysmic cascade of "environmental events," according to the news release.
Though researchers are not closer towards a definitive answer as to what happened, they now know how long it took.
Researchers from MIT have determined that the end-Permian extinction took place over 60,000 years, or 10 times faster than previous estimates.
The new timetable was decided based on more "precise dating" techniques.
"We've got the extinction nailed in absolute time and duration," said Sam Bowring, the Robert R. Shrock Professor of Earth and Planetary Sciences at MIT, according to the news release. "How do you kill 96 percent of everything that lived in the oceans in tens of thousands of years? It could be that an exceptional extinction requires an exceptional explanation."
Researchers have also found that 10,000 years before the die-off, oceans went through a "pulse' of light carbon, which reflects a massive addition of carbon dioxide to the atmosphere.
The change could have caused widespread ocean acidification and increased sea temperatures by over 10 degrees Celsius. This likely killed of 96 percent of marine life.
Scientists have yet to figure out what caused the spike in carbon dioxide in the atmosphere however. Past studies suggested that volcanic eruptions from the Siberian Traps, a region of Russia, caused the increase of carbon dioxide.
"It is clear that whatever triggered extinction must have acted very quickly," says Seth Burgess, the lead author of a paper, according to the news release. "Fast enough to destabilize the biosphere before the majority of plant and animal life had time to adapt in an effort to survive."
Fossils discovered in Meishan, China might also help researchers better understand the mass extinction. They're also analyzing rock samples discovered in China.
The paper was published in this week's Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
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