Works in Progress: Permian Extinction

When it comes to extinctions, dinosaurs get all the press. Their history reads like the life story of an oil tycoon or a rock star: the steady rise from obscurity, the heady days of world dominance, and then, 65 million years ago, a literally meteoric demise brought about by an impact near the Yucat‡n Peninsula. What the tabloids won't tell you is that the fall of the dinosaurs, while spectacular, is second-rate. In the annals of earthly catastrophe, nothing beats the Permian extinction, a deadly convulsion 250 million years ago that wiped out 90 percent of all life on the planet.