COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Testing the Rates and Patterns of the End-Permian Mass Extinction and Early Triassic Radiation of Vertebrates in the Karoo Basin, South Africa

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9903375KirschvinkThe mass extinction at the end of the 250 million-year-old Permian Period was the most consequential in Earth history, causing an estimated 80-90% of all species then living on Earth to die out. To date, no accepted mechanism has been discovered. This research will explore the tempo and pattern of extinction among land life at the end of the Permian by collecting large numbers of vertebrate fossils from the Karoo Basin of South Africa, and tying their occurrence to measured stratigraphic sections. The time frame of their disappearance will be calibrated using magnetostratigraphy. The resulting data should show whether the extinction was rapid or slow in non-marine environments, and thus provide clues to causation. It should also show whether the extinctions on land were synchronous with those in the sea.