How to kill (almost) all life: the end-Permian extinction event

Benton, Michael J.; Twitchett, Richard J.

doi:10.1016/s0169-5347(03)00093-4

Cited by 452 publications

(291 citation statements)

References 38 publications

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“…Some hypotheses suggest that mild greenhouse conditions generated by volcanism contributed to thermal release of methane from gas hydrates on continental shelves (Benton and Twitchett, 2003), which in turn led to enhanced greenhouse warming. This scenario is supported by multiple negative δ 13 C excursions reported from many global marine and terrestrial Permian-Triassic boundary successions (de Wit et al, 2002), and appears to be consistent with the transitional or stepwise floristic extinctions and recovery described above.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…If Reduviasporonites is a fungus (saprotroph), then its global success and the decline of woody plants may have been favoured by a dramatic spike in atmospheric CO 2 , acidification, reduced insolation, or ozone depletion (Visscher et al, 1996). None of these environmental scenarios is yet strongly supported by independent evidence although high CO 2 emissions might be expected from the eruption of the Siberian flood basalts and from the oxidation of methane hydrates released from continental shelf areas (Benton and Twitchett, 2003).…”

Section: Summary Of Floristic Trends Across the Massextinction Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Extinction and recovery patterns of the vegetation across the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary — a tool for unravelling the causes of the end-Permian mass-extinction

Vajda

McLoughlin

2007

Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

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High-resolution palynofloral signatures through the Cretaceous-Palaeogene boundary succession show several features in common with the Permian-Triassic transition but there are also important differences. Southern Hemisphere CretaceousPalaeogene successions, to date studied at high resolution only in New Zealand, reveal a diverse palynoflora abruptly replaced by fungi-dominated assemblages that are in turn succeeded by low diversity suites dominated by fern spores, then gymnosperm-and angiosperm-dominated palynofloras of equivalent diversity to those of the Late Cretaceous. This palynofloral signature is interpreted to represent instantaneous (days to months) destruction of diverse forest communities associated with the Chicxulub impact event. The pattern of palynofloral change suggests wholesale collapse of vascular plant communities and short-term proliferation of saprotrophs followed by relatively rapid successional recovery of pteridophyte and seed-plant communities. The Permian-Triassic transition records global devastation of gymnosperm-dominated forests in a short zone synchronous with one or more peaks of the fungal/algal palynomorph Reduviasporonites. This zone is typically succeeded by assemblages rich in lycophyte spores and/or acritarchs. Higher in the succession, these assemblages give way to diverse palynofloras dominated by new groups of gymnosperms. Although different plant families were involved in the mass-extinctions, the general pattern of extinction and recovery is consistent between both events. The major difference is the longer duration for each phase of the Triassic recovery vegetation compared to that of the Paleocene. The protracted extinction-recovery succession at the Permian-Triassic boundary is incompatible with an instantaneous causal mechanism such as an impact of a celestial body but is consistent with hypotheses invoking extended environmental perturbations through flood-basalt volcanism and release of methane from continental shelf sediments.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Section: Summary Of Floristic Trends Across the Massextinction Eventsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extinction and recovery patterns of the vegetation across the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary — a tool for unravelling the causes of the end-Permian mass-extinction

Vajda

McLoughlin

2007

Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology

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“…Therefore, the fossil record offers excellent opportu nities to analyze the strong links between past rapid climate changes and their effects on floral and faunal extinctions (e.g. Kennett and Stott, 1991;Courtillot and Gaudemer, 1996;Culver and Rawson, 2000;Benton and Twitchett, 2003;Mayhew et al, 2008;Gomez et al, 2008Gomez et al, ,2009 and in some cases the records of the lag time needed for a later recovery. et al, 2003, 2004Gomez et al, 2008) and Portugal (Suan et al, 2008).…”

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confidence: 99%

Rapid warming and ostracods mass extinction at the Lower Toarcian (Jurassic) of central Spain

Gómez

Arias

2010

Marine Micropaleontology

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“…Th e PT, TJ and KT extinctions coincided with intense volcanism events, forming the Siberian Traps , Central Atlantic Magmatic Province and the Deccan Traps respectively, and the PT and TJ were also periods of rapidly rising CO 2 and temperature (McElwain et al, 1999 ;Benton and Twitchett, 2003 ). It is not clear, however, whether global warming by itself is suffi cient to explain the mass extinctions (Mayhew et al, 2008 ), or whether other 'kill mechanisms' need to be invoked.…”

Section: Greenhouse and Icehouse Climatesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Climate modelling and deep-time climate change

Caballero¹,

Lynch²

2011

Climate Change, Ecology and Systematics

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Detailed and reliable understanding of past climate change is a key ingredient in unravelling how climate has infl uenced life on earth and will continue to do so in the future. Palaeoclimatology and climate modelling have both made rapid strides over the past decades, and there has been fruitful two-way interaction between the two fi elds. Th e application of climate models to palaeoclimates has proved useful both in interpreting palaeoclimate proxy data and in testing the robustness and generality of climate models. Here, we give an overview of the current state of climate modelling and review recent progress in understanding deep-time climate change, with emphasis on problems where climate models have played a salient role. By suitably adjusting the concentration of atmospheric greenhouse gases, climate models can be made to replicate many key climatic transitions in the earth's history. However, important discrepancies remain between modelled climates and proxy reconstructions, particularly on the warm end of the spectrum.

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How to kill (almost) all life: the end-Permian extinction event

Cited by 452 publications

References 38 publications

Extinction and recovery patterns of the vegetation across the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary — a tool for unravelling the causes of the end-Permian mass-extinction

Extinction and recovery patterns of the vegetation across the Cretaceous–Palaeogene boundary — a tool for unravelling the causes of the end-Permian mass-extinction

Rapid warming and ostracods mass extinction at the Lower Toarcian (Jurassic) of central Spain

Climate modelling and deep-time climate change

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