Mass extinctions of animals that live on Earth occur in a cycle of 27 million years

Mass extinctions of animals that live on Earth – including amphibians, reptiles, mammals and birds – track a cycle of about 27 million years, coinciding with the previously reported mass extinctions of ocean life, according to a new analysis published in the journal Historical biology.

The study also found that these mass extinctions are in line with major asteroid impacts and the destructive volcanic flow of lava called basalt flood eruptions – providing possible causes for the extinctions.

Michael Rampino said: “It appears that the effects of large bodies and pulses of internal activity of the Earth that create volcanic activity in the basalt flood may run to the same rate as the drums that lasted 27 million years as the extinctions, and perhaps our orbit in the galaxy.” He is a professor in the Department of Biology at New York University and lead author of the study.

Sixty-six million years ago, 70 percent of all species on land and in the seas, including dinosaurs, became extinct in the aftermath of a catastrophic collision with a large asteroid or comet. Next, paleontologists discovered that such mass extinctions of marine life, in which up to 90 percent of species disappeared, were not random events, but appeared to come in a 26-million-year cycle.

In their Historical biology Rampino and co-authors Ken Caldera of the Carnegie Institution of Science and Yohong Gu of the New York University Data Science Center examined the record of mass extinctions of animals living on land and concluded that it coincided with the extinction of ocean life. They also conducted new statistical analyzes of the extinction of wild species and showed that those events followed a similar cycle of about 27.5 million years.

What could cause periodic mass extinctions on land and seas? Mass extinctions aren’t the only events that happen in cycles: the age of archaeological craters – created by asteroids and comets that have collided with Earth’s surface – also follows a cycle in line with extinction Course.

Astrophysicists assume that periodic comet showers occur in the solar system every 26 to 30 million years, producing periodic effects and resulting in periodic mass extinctions. The Sun and the planets rotate through the mid-plane of the Milky Way approximately every 30 million years. During those times, comet showers could have major impacts on Earth. The impacts can create conditions that will stress and potentially kill wild and marine life, including the spread of darkness, hail and wildfires. Acid rainAnd and Ozone depletion.

These new findings related to a simultaneous sudden mass extinction on land and oceans, and a combined extinction that extends from 26 to 27 million years. CourseRampino said, lends credence to the idea of ​​periodic global catastrophic events as triggers for extinctions. “In fact, it is already known that three genocides of species on land and at sea occurred at the same times as the three largest impacts of the past 250 million years, each capable of causing global catastrophe and mass extinctions.

Researchers were surprised to find another possible explanation beyond asteroids for mass extinctions: a basalt flood eruption, or gigantic volcanic eruptions covering vast areas of lava. All eight simultaneous mass deaths on land and in the oceans corresponded to the times of the basalt flood eruptions. These eruptions had also created harsh conditions for life, including short periods of extreme cold, acid rain, destruction of the ozone layer and increased radiation; In the long term, explosions could lead to a deadly greenhouse temperature, more acids and less oxygen in the ocean.

“It seems that the global mass extinctions were caused by the most catastrophic impacts and supervolcanoes, and they may sometimes be operating collectively,” Rampino added.