Triassic period ended with 'lost' mass extinction and a million-year rain storm, study claims

[Judi Lynn]

By Brandon Specktor - Senior Writer a day ago

Did a "lost" extinction 230 million years ago empty the oceans and pave the way for dinosaurs?

Long ago, before the dawn of the age of dinosaurs, a heavy rain descended upon the supercontinent of Pangaea — and it kept raining for more than 1 million years.

This epic rainy spell — known now as the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE) — occurred roughly 233 million years ago and was a stark shift from the typically arid conditions of the late Triassic period. But stormy skies weren't the only change Earth was facing. According to a study published Sept. 16 in the journal Science Advances, new fossil evidence suggests that the CPE was in fact a major extinction event — driven by volcanic eruptions and climate change — that resulted in the deaths of one-third of all marine species, plus a significant number of terrestrial plants and animals.

This "lost" extinction event doesn't quite reach the death toll of the five major mass extinctions typically discussed by the scientific community (the Permian-Triassic extinction, which occurred just 20 million years earlier, may have wiped out 90% of living species, for example). However, the study authors argue, the CPE isn't just important for what was lost — but also for what was gained. Far from just a period of death, the CPE was a period of "turnover," the researchers wrote, effectively paving the way for the dominion of the dinosaurs and the evolution of many terrestrial animal groups that still roam the Earth today.

"A key feature of the CPE is that extinction was very rapidly followed by a big radiation [of new species]," lead study author Jacopo Dal Corso, a geology professor at the China University of Geosciences in Wuhan, told reporter Scott Norris of Eos.org. "A number of groups that have a central role in today's ecosystems appeared or diversified for the first time in the Carnian [an age within the Triassic that lasted from 237 to 227 million years ago]."

More:
https://www.livescience.com/carnian-pluvial-episode-mass-extinction.html

[abqtommy]

1. No humans were involved in this weather event! Kinda humbling that the world keeps

turning even when we're not around. Makes a person think...

[Karadeniz]

2. Wow! Who knew? Thanks for sharing!