ISLAMABAD-Researchers find that timing of mass extinctions lines up with asteroid impacts and massive volcanic eruptions. Mass extinctions of land-dwelling animals \u2014 including amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds \u2014 follow a cycle of about 27 million years, coinciding with previously reported mass extinctions of\u00a0ocean life, according to a new analysis published in the journal Historical Biology. The study also finds that these mass extinctions align with major asteroid impacts and devastating volcanic outpourings of lava called flood-basalt eruptions \u2014 providing potential causes for why the extinctions occurred.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Sixty-six million years ago, 70 percent of all species on land and in the seas, including the dinosaurs, suddenly went extinct, in the disastrous aftermath of the collision of a large asteroid or comet with the Earth. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Subsequently, paleontologists discovered that such mass extinctions of marine life, in which up to 90 percent of species disappeared, were not random events, but seemed to come in a 26-million-year cycle.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
ISLAMABAD-Researchers find that timing of mass extinctions lines up with asteroid impacts and massive volcanic eruptions. Mass extinctions of land-dwelling animals \u2014 including amphibians, reptiles, mammals, and birds \u2014 follow a cycle of about 27 million years, coinciding with previously reported mass extinctions of\u00a0ocean life, […]<\/p>\n
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