(ORDO NEWS) — Researchers have identified the events that led to a double mass extinction on Earth. Scientists from the University of Cincinnati in the US conducted a study of a global anoxia that occurred about 260 million years ago in the Permian, and concluded that this event led to a double mass extinction at the level of entire genera.
Global anoxia is an event in which the level of oxygen in the atmosphere drops to critically low values.
During the Permian period, about 260 million years ago, one of the largest global anoxias in the history of the Earth occurred , leading to a mass extinction of life in the oceans.
Scientists have studied sediments formed during the Permian period in North America and found traces of the extinction of a number of organisms, such as ammonites, belemnites and some species of sea urchins.
In addition, the study showed that immediately after the first stage of global anoxia, which led to the extinction of the Brachiopoda genus, a second stage occurred, which led to the extinction of even more organisms, including the sea urchin genera Echinodermata and Conodontophorida.
Scientists note that the global anoxia of the Permian period had far-reaching consequences for life on Earth and became one of the causes of the mass extinction.
This study helps to better understand what factors can lead to such global events and how they affect the biological diversity of our planet.
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