As long as there has been life on Earth, there has been extinction. In fact, nearly every life form that has called Earth home has gone extinct.
“Of the 50 billion or so species that have [lived] during our planet’s 4.5 billion year history, more than 99 percent have disappeared,” says Jessica Whiteside, a planetary paleontologist at University of Southampton.
In particular, mass extinction events have shaped the course of evolution and Earth itself. This refers to relatively short spans of time when a majority of species go extinct.
Of course, short means something a bit different in geological time. These cataclysmic events – mere “blips” in Earth’s history – can encompass hundreds of thousands or even millions of years, making it incredibly difficult to say just how long they last.
Yet, understanding how scientists study mass extinctions reveals the incredible insights we do have about the length of mass extinctions and their impact on the planet.
