The ‘Great Dying’ wiped out 90% of life, then came 5 million years of lethal heat. New fossils explain why | CNN
www.cnn.com
A mass extinction event wiped out around 90% of life. What followed has long puzzled scientists: The planet became lethally hot for 5 million years. Researchers say they have figured out why using a vast trove of fossils.
  • Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
    11·
    1 day ago

    Well, they aren’t exactly “new” fossils, now are they? smuglord

    But it is good to see clearer evidence of this, this has been the main hypothesis for a while (it also explains why insects died out much more during this extinction even than others, because there was much less vegetation for them to live in/on), though it was probably some other factors as well, there’s rarely ever a simple singular cause and effect when it comes to major changes to the biosphere (at least when it comes to natural extinction events)

    • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
      8·
      1 day ago

      It really shows how interconnected the biosphere is, and how little we understand about its dynamics. The fact that we’re changing the climate in such dramatic ways without having much of an idea of what the impact will be is surreal.

      • Damarcusart [he/him, comrade/them]@hexbear.netEnglish
        6·
        1 day ago

        Yeah, at some point (which might have already happened) it’ll cascade out in ways we couldn’t really predict. I don’t think anything humans could do would be as bad as the Permian-Triassic extinction event though, that was a uniquely one of a kind awful situation for life on earth. If things get bad enough that we destroy ourselves (or even just industrial civilisation) the biosphere will manage to recover, though obviously it would be better to, you know, not needlessly cause the extinction of millions of species of life on this planet.

        • ☆ Yσɠƚԋσʂ ☆@lemmygrad.mlOPEnglish
          4·
          1 day ago

          I also think it’s unlikely there’s going to be a full on biosphere collapse, but our civilization could certainly crash as we start getting extreme temperatures. Food production is a big vulnerability, and there will probably be more conflicts happening as parts of the world become unlivable.

  • lilypad [she/her, pup/pup's]@hexbear.netEnglish
    15·
    2 days ago

    There is a sliver of hope: The rainforests that currently carpet the tropics may be more resilient to high temperatures than those that existed before the Great Dying. This is the question the scientists are tackling next.

    Nah, ive been sold that “sliver of hope” my whole life and watched as we blow past it again and again. Theyre not gettin me this time. We can solve a lot of our problems. We choose not to.