She-ra Posted April 17, 2015 #1 Share Posted April 17, 2015 It has been argued that we are on the brink of the next great extinction, which would be the sixth mass extinction event that our planet has seen so far. Or at least, so we thought. According to new research, another hotly debated mass extinction should be added to the recognized list of mass extinction events. Newly gathered data indicates that a previously observed mass die-off was far more widespread than once thought. The study has been published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin. Although there have been five traditionally recognized mass extinctions, scientists have contemplated the existence of a sixth, occurring in the Middle Permian (262 million years ago), for more than 20 years. This so called “Capitanian extinction” was proposed after scientists discovered fossil evidence for mass die-offs in rock formations in China. However, this event has remained controversial since it was only known from data gathered in tropical latitudes, with scarce evidence from higher latitudes. This led scientists to argue that it may have only been a localized event, or perhaps the start of a trend towards the Permian extinction, which took place ten million years later. Read more here: http://www.iflscience.com/plants-and-animals/new-fossil-evidence-suggests-there-were-6-mass-extinctions-not-5 Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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