GENERAL GEOLOGY

Detailed explanation-1: -The largest mass extinction event in Earth’s history affected a range of species, including many vertebrates.

Detailed explanation-2: -What causes mass extinctions? Past mass extinctions were caused by extreme temperature changes, rising or falling sea levels and catastrophic, one-off events such as huge volcanic eruptions or an asteroid hitting Earth. We know about them because we can see how life has changed in the fossil record.

Detailed explanation-3: -The largest extinction in Earth’s history marked the end of the Permian period, some 252 million years ago. Long before dinosaurs, our planet was populated with plants and animals that were mostly obliterated after a series of massive volcanic eruptions in Siberia.

Detailed explanation-4: -Mass extinctions are defined as “any substantial increase in the amount of extinction (lineage termination) suffered by more than one geographically wide-spread higher taxon during a relatively short interval of geologic time, resulting in an at least temporary decline in their standing diversity” (Sepkoski, 1986, p.