How survivors spanned the globe after Earth’s biggest mass extinction
Scientists don’t call it the “Great Dying” for nothing. About 252 million years ago, upward of 80% of all marine species vanished during the end-Permian mass extinction – the most extreme event of its kind in Earth’s history.
What followed was a mysterious, multimillion-year span that could be called the “Great Dulling,” when marine animal communities looked remarkably alike all over the planet, from the equator to the poles. Researchers have long sought an explanation for this so-called taxonomic homogenization – a scene that played out after other mass extinctions over the past ...








