COLLABORATIVE RESEARCH: Vertebrate Extinction and Recovery Patterns in the Karoo Basin Across the Permo/Triassic Boundary, South Africa

9903382 Ward在2.5亿年前的二叠纪末期发生的大灭绝是地球历史上最严重的一次，估计导致当时生活在地球上的所有物种的80-90%灭绝。 迄今为止，尚未发现任何公认的机制。 本研究将通过从南非卡鲁盆地收集大量脊椎动物化石，并将其发生与测量的地层剖面联系起来，探索二叠纪末陆地生物灭绝的克里思和模式。 它们消失的时间框架将使用磁性地层学进行校准。 由此产生的数据应该显示在非海洋环境中灭绝是快速还是缓慢，从而提供因果关系的线索。 它还应表明陆地上的活动是否与海洋上的活动同步。

9903382WardThe 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.