# The Permian Extinction: The Day the Earth Nearly Died **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 1, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469 "2003-05-01T20:34:17Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/1 "2003-05-01T20:34:17Z")
Such was the name of a recent program on the Discovery Channel. Without going into program in great detail, the question is just about one theory that one researcher presented (although I might have the numbers off a little): His contention was that during the Permian extinction, it appears that the massive extinction occurred first on land, for about 40,000 or so years. Then, a second massive extinction occurred in the water, over another 40,000 or so years. Is that point widely accepted? The researcher came up with this only in the past couple of years. ---
**Author:** ![Ice\_Wolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/dfb087/32.png) [@Ice\_Wolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ice_Wolf)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/2 "2003-05-01T20:48:49Z")
[Is this the same programme?](http://www.bbc.co.uk/science/horizon/2002/dayearthdied.shtml) > [@](#): > > So it seems likely there were two Permian killers. The Siberian Traps did erupt, contributing first to a nuclear winter cooling effect (caused by dust) and and then to global warming (due to greenhouse gases). Over 40,000 years, some land animals gradually died out while life in the seas lived relatively calmly on, as the water temperature gently rose. Then the seas gave up their frozen methane. In just 5,000 years, there was massive loss of species from the world’s oceans. In a third and final phase of the extinction, the Permian killer returned to stalk the land for another 35,000 years. By the end of that process, 95% of the Earth’s species were extinct. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/3 "2003-05-01T20:51:46Z")
Yep, that’s the same one. ---
**Author:** ![Reeder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c6cbf5/32.png) [@Reeder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Reeder)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/4 "2003-05-01T21:19:38Z")
The earth is deadly. There have been 5 major extinctions. Only one was caused by something other than the the earth itself. Let’s face it…Mother Earth is not a stable creature. ---
**Author:** ![Q.E.D](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/q/51bf81/32.png) [@Q.E.D](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Q.E.D)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 9:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/5 "2003-05-01T21:40:21Z")
6, if you count the one we’re currently in. The one _we_ apparently are causing. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/6 "2003-05-01T21:48:10Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*6, if you count the one we’re currently in. The one _we_ apparently are causing. \*\* Isn’t that cool? We’re part of the natural cycle of this planet. After every mass extinction, new and more complex organisms always arise. I wonder, what new marvels will this planet produce once we’re gone? ---
**Author:** ![Darwins\_Finch](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darwins_finch/32/20304_2.png) [@Darwins\_Finch](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darwins_Finch)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 10:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/7 "2003-05-01T22:07:02Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by Q.E.D. \* > \*\*6, if you count the one we’re currently in. The one _we_ apparently are causing. \*\* 6, even if you don’t count the one we’re in: 1 ) Late Cambrian, 2) Late Ordivician, 3) Late Devonian, 4) End of Permian, 5) Late Triassic, 6) End of Cretaceous. > [@](#): > > _Originally posted by Alessan_ > **Isn’t that cool? We’re part of the natural cycle of this planet.** All species are doomed to extinction eventually. However, hastening that extinction through deliberate effort is hardly “natural”; if someone is hit by a bus, one typically does not claim that he died of “natural causes”. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/8 "2003-05-01T22:08:31Z")
The causes of the Permian mass extinction remain controversial. Some scientists believe that an impact was involved, although evidence for this is much sparser than for the Cretaceous-Tertiary event. [Permian Impact](http://www.spacedaily.com/news/life-01ze.html) Impacts have also been suggested as a cause of the Devonian and the Triassic-Jurassic mass extinctions, but the evidence for this is even more tenuous. ---
**Author:** ![Alessan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alessan/32/465_2.png) [@Alessan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alessan)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 10:14pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/9 "2003-05-01T22:14:30Z")
How is getting hit by a bus any less “natural” than, say, dying of cancer? Besides being a faster death, of course. If an upstart lion kills the head of its pride, is it displaying unnatural behaviour? In fact, how can _anything_ humanity does be less natural that a meteor hitting the Earth? At least WE’RE native to this planet. ---
**Author:** ![WillSantini](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ed8c4c/32.png) [@WillSantini](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WillSantini)\ **Post date:** [May 1, 2003, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/10 "2003-05-01T22:57:01Z")
But will the next natural cycle produce another SDMB? ---
**Author:** ![Exapno\_Mapcase](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/exapno_mapcase/32/1051_2.png) [@Exapno\_Mapcase](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Exapno_Mapcase)\ **Post date:** [May 2, 2003, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/the-permian-extinction-the-day-the-earth-nearly-died/172469/11 "2003-05-02T03:37:32Z")
Here’s an important new book on the subject, [When Life Nearly Died: The Greatest Mass Extinction of All Time, by Michael Benton](http://www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/tg/detail/-/050005116X/qid=1051846545/sr=8-1/ref=sr_8_1/102-4973014-0499319?v=glance&s=books&n=507846).