What Are The Major Mass Extinctions In The History About Earth?

2025-08-25 19:04:27 105

5 Answers

Adam
Adam
2025-08-27 01:08:53
If you want the nutshell: five big ones—End-Ordovician, Late Devonian, End-Permian, End-Triassic, End-Cretaceous. They each removed a large fraction of life, especially in the oceans, and had different mixes of causes. Glaciation and sea-level change hit the Ordovician. Devonian losses were prolonged, tied to anoxia and ecosystem collapse. The Permian was the most catastrophic, linked to huge volcanism and greenhouse feedbacks. Triassic involved volcanic pulses and climate shifts. Cretaceous is famous for the asteroid impact at Chicxulub plus volcanic activity. The evidence comes from fossil gaps, chemical markers like iridium, shocked quartz, and volcanic deposits. I often picture these events when I read 'Jurassic Park'—they're the deep-time reasons the world looks the way it does.
Bradley
Bradley
2025-08-27 12:20:03
I toss these events into mental folders like a playlist of planetary crises. The major mass extinctions are the End-Ordovician, the Late Devonian, the End-Permian, the End-Triassic, and the End-Cretaceous. They differ in tempo—some were relatively fast (tens to hundreds of thousands of years), others were drawn-out crises—but each removed a huge slice of biodiversity and reset evolutionary directions.

Causes are rarely singletons: ice ages and sea-level fall did the End-Ordovician, while the Late Devonian looks like repeated pulses of oxygen-poor oceans and ecosystem collapse. The End-Permian ramped up with massive Siberian Traps eruptions, CO2 spikes, ocean acidification, and anoxia, producing the most severe losses we know. The End-Triassic likely involved Central Atlantic magmatic province volcanism. The End-Cretaceous stands out because the Chicxulub impact is well supported by an iridium anomaly, shocked minerals, and a global ejecta layer; concurrent Deccan eruptions complicate the story.

Paleontologists use radiometric dating, stratigraphy, and global correlation to piece these together. Thinking about these events makes me more attentive to modern drivers—habitat loss, climate change, invasive species—which feel like a slow-moving, human-shaped extinction pulse.
Yvette
Yvette
2025-08-28 20:05:34
Lately I find myself thinking about extinctions as forensic puzzles. Looking at each event from that angle reveals different fingerprints. The End-Ordovician leaves glacial deposits, glendonites, and a marked drop in shallow-marine fossils—so cold snaps and sea-level fall are the prime suspects. The Late Devonian shows staggered extinctions and widespread black shales indicating low-oxygen oceans, suggesting repeated ocean anoxia events. The End-Permian is accompanied by flood-basalt provinces, large carbon-isotope excursions, and sterilized seafloors pointing to intense volcanism and cascading climate feedbacks. End-Triassic ties to large magmatic events again, while End-Cretaceous sports the global iridium layer, spherules, and a crater consistent with a massive bolide strike.

I dig into the methods researchers use—stratigraphic correlation, isotopes, paleobotany—and it makes the past feel reconstructible, not just mysterious. It also colors how I view today's biodiversity decline; comparing causes helps me grasp the scale of human impact, which is unnerving but also motivating for conservation.
Kevin
Kevin
2025-08-28 22:28:25
I nerd out imagining these extinctions like levels in a game—each one an environmental boss fight that reshaped the roster of life. The five big ones are End-Ordovician (glacio-sea level shifts), Late Devonian (long-term marine anoxia and ecosystem breakdown), End-Permian (the brutal volcanism-driven wipeout), End-Triassic (volcanic and climate upheaval), and End-Cretaceous (the Chicxulub hit plus volcanism). Gamers and writers love using these resets as hooks—'Jurassic Park' leans on the Cretaceous exit, and many sci-fi worlds riff on mass die-offs.

What gets me is how modern pressures—habitat destruction, climate change, pollution—mirror ingredients of past extinctions, but with humans playing the role of catalyst. That thought makes me more intentional about everyday choices, and I sometimes bring it up in fan chats or when discussing worldbuilding with friends.
Peter
Peter
2025-08-31 19:29:27
When I stand in front of a museum diorama of ancient seas, I get this weird mix of awe and sadness—Earth has been through some truly dramatic clean slates. The headline players are the 'Big Five' mass extinctions: the End-Ordovician (~443 million years ago), the Late Devonian (~372–359 Ma), the End-Permian or 'Great Dying' (~252 Ma), the End-Triassic (~201 Ma), and the End-Cretaceous (~66 Ma). Each one reshaped life in its own brutal way.

End-Ordovician wiped out something like 60–85% of marine species largely from glaciation and sea-level change. The Late Devonian stretched out over millions of years, with anoxia, volcanic pulses, and perhaps asteroid impacts hitting reef-builders hard. The End-Permian was the worst—estimates put marine losses near 90% and massive terrestrial casualties, probably driven by Siberian Traps volcanism, runaway greenhouse effects, and ocean anoxia. End-Triassic cleared the way for dinosaurs, with volcanism and climate shifts implicated. Finally, the End-Cretaceous is famous for an asteroid impact plus Deccan volcanism, wiping out non-avian dinosaurs and about three-quarters of species.

What fascinates me is the evidence: iridium layers, shocked quartz, sudden fossil disappearances, carbon isotope swings. Visiting fossil beds and reading papers makes me think about how fragile ecosystems can be, and why today's biodiversity loss feels eerily familiar.
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