Extinctions

[PB666]

This thread is for discussion of extinction events, notably mass extinctions.

Selenium caused

http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2015/11/three-earth-s-five-largest-extinctions-may-have-been-caused-loss-essential-element?utm_campaign=email-news-weekly&et_rid=16756882&et_cid=80354

[Scotius]

Well, it kind of makes sense that deficit of a vital element would have a negative impact on the biosphere. But...mass extinctions are not as cut-and-dry as the term suggests. While many species and genera indeed die off, other are hardly affected and some begin to flourish, taking immediate (in evolutional terms, of course) advantage of lessened competition and free niches. Lack of selenium may have played a part, but probably it wasn't as major as theory authors imagined it.

[Camacha]

This thread is for discussion of extinction events, notably mass extinctions.

Selenium caused

http://news.sciencemag.org/chemistry/2015/11/three-earth-s-five-largest-extinctions-may-have-been-caused-loss-essential-element?utm_campaign=email-news-weekly&et_rid=16756882&et_cid=80354

Well, discuss. What is you opinion, based on what facts? Why do you feel we need to discuss this?

Edited November 8, 2015 by Camacha

[Findthepin1]

Why did plesiosaurs go extinct and not other major marine life at the KT boundary event

[PB666]

Dark matter and the extintion of the dinosaurs. No, really.

[KAL 9000]

You know that there are six mass extinction events, not five? The sixth is the Holocene extinction event. The cause: Human activity! It's true!

[Findthepin1]

So that's three astronomic (the Ordovician-Silurian gamma ray burst, the Late Devonian bolide impact, and the K-T bolide impact), two geological (the Permian-Triassic Siberian Traps and the T-J ocean acidification), and one biological (Holocene technological civilization). There were probably more but we don't know about them.

[Hcube]

hey, I know literally nothing about great extinctions events. It's very interesting though ! What were those big five and when and how did they happen ? I'm curious and you guys seem to know quite a bit the subject

[KerikBalm]

So that's three astronomic (the Ordovician-Silurian gamma ray burst, the Late Devonian bolide impact

Neither of these causes are well supported