(Press-News.org) It took some 10 million years for Earth to recover from the greatest mass extinction of all time, latest research has revealed.
Life was nearly wiped out 250 million years ago, with only 10 per cent of plants and animals surviving. It is currently much debated how life recovered from this cataclysm, whether quickly or slowly.
Recent evidence for a rapid bounce-back is evaluated in a new review article by Dr Zhong-Qiang Chen, from the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, and Professor Michael Benton from the University of Bristol. They find that recovery from the crisis lasted some 10 million years, as explained today [27 May] in Nature Geoscience.
There were apparently two reasons for the delay, the sheer intensity of the crisis, and continuing grim conditions on Earth after the first wave of extinction.
The end-Permian crisis, by far the most dramatic biological crisis to affect life on Earth, was triggered by a number of physical environmental shocks - global warming, acid rain, ocean acidification and ocean anoxia. These were enough to kill off 90 per cent of living things on land and in the sea.
Dr Chen said: "It is hard to imagine how so much of life could have been killed, but there is no doubt from some of the fantastic rock sections in China and elsewhere round the world that this was the biggest crisis ever faced by life."
Current research shows that the grim conditions continued in bursts for some five to six million years after the initial crisis, with repeated carbon and oxygen crises, warming and other ill effects.
Some groups of animals on the sea and land did recover quickly and began to rebuild their ecosystems, but they suffered further setbacks. Life had not really recovered in these early phases because permanent ecosystems were not established.
Professor Benton, Professor of Vertebrate Palaeontology at the University of Bristol, said: "Life seemed to be getting back to normal when another crisis hit and set it back again. The carbon crises were repeated many times, and then finally conditions became normal again after five million years or so."
Finally, after the environmental crises ceased to be so severe, more complex ecosystems emerged. In the sea, new groups, such as ancestral crabs and lobsters, as well as the first marine reptiles, came on the scene, and they formed the basis of future modern-style ecosystems.
Professor Benton added: "We often see mass extinctions as entirely negative but in this most devastating case, life did recover, after many millions of years, and new groups emerged. The event had re-set evolution. However, the causes of the killing - global warming, acid rain, ocean acidification - sound eerily familiar to us today. Perhaps we can learn something from these ancient events."
### END
Danang has a growing range of tourist facilities which is contributing to the growth of Danang as a tourism hub. To capitalize on this trend, Luxury Travel Ltd (www.luxurytravelvietnam.com). has just opened a new Danang office to meet increased luxury tour. Luxury Travel Ltd is a long established Asian specialist in the art of travel and serves today's most sophisticated travelers, in luxury privately guided and fully bespoke holidays in Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar and Thailand.
Danang has stepped into the tourism limelight as a much sought after destination for ...
Are members of the public divided about climate change because they don't understand the science behind it? If Americans knew more basic science and were more proficient in technical reasoning, would public consensus match scientific consensus?
A study published today online in the journal Nature Climate Change suggests that the answer to both questions is no. Indeed, as members of the public become more science literate and numerate, the study found, individuals belonging to opposing cultural groups become even more divided on the risks that climate change poses.
Funded ...
One of the UKs leading job sites, www.reed.co.uk, is supporting the '4G Britain' campaign encouraging the government to invest in 4G services, pointing out that the new technology could create thousands of jobs in the UK.
The job site is advocating a recent report published by Everything Everywhere, the UKs largest network operator, which suggests 125,000 jobs could be created with sufficient investment in 4G mobile data services.
Everything Everywhere, the company formed after the merging of Orange and T-Mobile phone networks, have been strong proponents of the ...
When power plants begin capturing their carbon emissions to reduce greenhouse gases – and to most in the electric power industry, it's a question of when, not if – it will be an expensive undertaking.
Current technologies would use about one-third of the energy generated by the plants – what's called "parasitic energy" – and, as a result, substantially drive up the price of electricity.
But a new computer model developed by University of California, Berkeley, chemists shows that less expensive technologies are on the horizon. They will use new solid materials like ...
"Life is full of moments when a need for financial help arises unexpectedly. Some of those moments are not easy by any means. A few weeks ago my grandmother passed away, and, with the void of losing a loved one, came the responsibility of making all the final arrangements for her, in Texas," said Mr. Reynolds.
"We needed to have all funeral expenses covered fast, but it was not very easy for my family financially. After doing my fair share of research online, PawnUp.com looked like the most obvious choice to help us with the money ASAP, and definitely ...
PHILADELPHIA — By pairing an intimate knowledge of immune-system function with a deep understanding of statistical physics, a cross-disciplinary team at the University of Pennsylvania has arrived at a surprising finding: T cells use a movement strategy to track down parasites that is similar to strategies that predators such as monkeys, sharks and blue-fin tuna use to hunt their prey.
With this new insight into immune-cell movement patterns, scientists will be able to create more accurate models of immune-system function, which may, in turn, inform novel approaches ...
Multi-walled carbon nanotubes riddled with defects and impurities on the outside could replace some of the expensive platinum catalysts used in fuel cells and metal-air batteries, according to scientists at Stanford University. Their findings are published in the May 27 online edition of the journal Nature Nanotechnology.
"Platinum is very expensive and thus impractical for large-scale commercialization," said Hongjie Dai, a professor of chemistry at Stanford and co-author of the study. "Developing a low-cost alternative has been a major research goal for several decades."
Over ...
At first glance, it's hard to see how a common house sparrow and a Tyrannosaurus Rex might have anything in common. After all, one is a bird that weighs less than an ounce, and the other is a dinosaur that was the size of a school bus and tipped the scales at more than eight tons.
For all their differences, though, scientists now say that two are more closely related than many believed. A new study, led by Harvard scientists, has shown that modern birds are, essentially, living dinosaurs, with skulls that are remarkably similar to those of their juvenile ancestors.
As ...
Psychological Affiliates, a private practice of psychologists established by Dr. Deborah O. Day in 1988, is proud to announce the launch of their new website. This new website will make it easier for Psychological Affiliates professional consultation services. "There are a growing number of families in need of comprehensive outpatient services for a wide variety of mental health issue," mentioned Dr. Deborah O. Day in an interview.
Psychological Affiliates service provide a way to professionally address a wide variety of issues such as child abuse, play therapy, ...
Darlynn Morgan, and Morgan Law Group of Newport Beach, are pleased to announce their sponsorship of WHW's 2nd annual Suits for a Cause clothing drive. WHW collects men's and women's clothing as well as accessories and provides, at no charge, comprehensive employment support services to empower disadvantaged men, women and teens to achieve economic self-sufficiency through employment success.
"It is amazing what hundreds of lawyers at dozens of law firms can do when they join together to support a charity like WHW." says Janie Wolicki, WHW's Executive Director.
"We ...
