The second-most severe mass extinction in Earth’s history may have been triggered by global warming. The discovery means that, for the first time, all of the largest known extinctions can be linked to a rapid rise in the planet’s temperature. Image: VSmithUK
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The gargantuan Permian extinction has been blamed on massive volcanic eruptions that killed swathes of organisms, but the eruptions may instead have had an insidious effect: sterilisation. Organisms may not have been killed outright, but if they could not reproduce their species were still doomed. Image: denis_wright
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Should the “big five” really be the “big four”? For decades, we have recognised five devastating mass extinctions that punctuate the last half-billion years of evolution. But now two geologists are controversially arguing that the end-Triassic extinction has no place on that list. Image: Sparkle Motion
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