Dinosaurs

[fsu1jreed]

And the Cretaceous ELE was pretty “mild” for an ELE. “Only” about 17% of families and 80% of species died off. Meanwhile the Permian ELE or “Great Dying” killed off 57% of families and 96% of species. The Permian is the closest we came to losing all life on Earth and we really don’t know why. It does seem to be a slow event that happened over 200,000 years rather than in an instant like the Cretaceous meteor. Makes you wonder if any of those Permian mammals were intelligent and killed off the Earth the way we are heading.

In my Geophysics class we actually discussed the similarities/differences between the Permian and KT events and my professor said that there's a small contingency of researchers that think the Permian was also caused by asteroid/comet also. Even though it's very widely believed that it was caused by a massive volcanic event (Siberian traps), some think that an asteroid was also to be blamed.......but it hit at such a acute angle (just 5 degrees or so) that it skipped off the Earth and because of it's speed that it actually continued on it's way (which is why there's no crater). But it removed enough of the crust to start the Siberian traps.

 

[FSUTribe76]

In my Geophysics class we actually discussed the similarities/differences between the Permian and KT events and my professor said that there's a small contingency of researchers that think the Permian was also caused by asteroid/comet also. Even though it's very widely believed that it was caused by a massive volcanic event (Siberian traps), some think that an asteroid was also to be blamed.......but it hit at such a acute angle (just 5 degrees or so) that it skipped off the Earth and because of it's speed that it actually continued on it's way (which is why there's no crater). But it removed enough of the crust to start the Siberian traps.

They really have no clue other than it was a prolonged period of death between 10,000-600,000 years centering around 200,000 rather than a quick acute death like the KT/Cretaceous ELE. They know based on the types of creatures that died (those with the hardest exoskeleton, those that were sessile rather than freeswimming, etc...) that it was likely increased carbon dioxide, lowered oxygen and increased temperatures that led to it. But as to what caused the atmosphere to change they really don’t have significant evidence.

Some scientists do claim that it wasn’t one event but two relatively close together with the first killing about 20-30% of life and then the second clobbering the rest to get to 97% extinct species total. The alternative thought is that it was just one long terrible event of some sort. As to what caused it....everything from meteors and volcanic activity like you suggested to increased toxic algal blooms, changes in the sulfur eating bacteria levels of the Earth, solar flares, simultaneous release of methane from the Earths crust, massive changes to the global weather caused by the formation of Pangea (most people including myself think of Pangea as the beginning of life on earth but Pangea really formed during the Permian before that there were three continents that smashed into each other to form Pangea before it broke apart), etc...

 

[FSUTribe76]

I watched a Netflix special called Bird Brains today during lunch and it had an interesting bit of information. Birds ie dinosaur’s brains were smaller than mammals but they actually pack ten times the amount of neurons into the same area. That’s why birds like crows and parrots are smarter than dogs despite having much smaller brains. So now when you think about some of the larger brained raptors and oviraptors, they really could have been on par with apes.

 

[fsu1jreed]

They really have no clue other than it was a prolonged period of death between 10,000-600,000 years centering around 200,000 rather than a quick acute death like the KT/Cretaceous ELE. They know based on the types of creatures that died (those with the hardest exoskeleton, those that were sessile rather than freeswimming, etc...) that it was likely increased carbon dioxide, lowered oxygen and increased temperatures that led to it. But as to what caused the atmosphere to change they really don’t have significant evidence.

Some scientists do claim that it wasn’t one event but two relatively close together with the first killing about 20-30% of life and then the second clobbering the rest to get to 97% extinct species total. The alternative thought is that it was just one long terrible event of some sort. As to what caused it....everything from meteors and volcanic activity like you suggested to increased toxic algal blooms, changes in the sulfur eating bacteria levels of the Earth, solar flares, simultaneous release of methane from the Earths crust, massive changes to the global weather caused by the formation of Pangea (most people including myself think of Pangea as the beginning of live on earth but Pangea really formed during the Permian before that there were three continents that smashed into each other to form Pangea before it broke apart), etc...

Plus, at that time ecosystems were not as diverse as they are today with respect to number of species, species interaction, trophic levels, etc., which meant they would crash easier with little outside perturbation.

 

[SoProudNole]

Lol. So getting high is childish now?

It always has been.

 

[BrunoMars420]

It always has been.

What’s your thoughts on drinking?