Newly Discovered Sixth Extinction Rivals That of the Dinosaurs

sciencehabit writes Earth has seen its share of catastrophes, the worst being the 'big five' mass extinctions scientists traditionally talk about. Now, paleontologists are arguing that a sixth extinction, 260 million years ago, at the end of a geological age called the Capitanian, deserves to be a member of the exclusive club. In a new study, they offer evidence for a massive die-off in shallow, cool waters in what is now Norway. That finding, combined with previous evidence of extinctions in tropical waters, means that the Capitanian was a global catastrophe.

Comments

Re:The real extinction

[Mashiki]

I keep hearing that, and every time I look up for factual information on it I end up on a deadend of sites, or non-existent papers, or articles in non-scholarly journals. And considering I've been digging through this off and on for the last 20 years, and always end up at the same state, that leads me to believe that it's simply being used as a hyped up bit of propaganda work. I'm not saying there aren't extinctions, I'm saying that they're not at the level that people claim it is.

You know, much similar to the end of the world, or global warming will cause the earth to have no ice caps by 2000(said in early 70s and again in the 90s), or the arctic ocean will be free of ice by 2010(early 80s), or New York City will be like Ft. Lauderdale by 1995(said in late 60s).