A Life Oasis Protected Plants During the Permian Mass Extinction Event

Learn more about the newly found fossils that show plant resilience during the “Great Dying.”

By Paul Smaglik
Mar 12, 2025 6:01 PMMar 12, 2025 11:08 PM
Demonstration of Resilience
(Image Credit: Yang Dinghua) Artistic reconstruction of the terrestrial ecological landscape before the end Permian mass extinction based on fossil palynomorphs, plants , and tetrapods recovered, as well as sedimentological data from the South Taodonggou Section

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Even during one of Earth’s largest mass extinction events, where heat waves kill of a majority of Earth’s species, at least one oasis of survival existed.

The findings suggest that there may have been pockets of protection throughout Earth — challenging the notion that the heat affected life on the planet uniformly, according to a paper in Science Advances.

Living Through "The Great Dying"

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