EXTINCTION 101

How the ‘big five’ extinctions shaped the trajectory of life on Earth

1 ORDOVICIANSILURIAN EXTINCTION: ~ 440 MILLION YEARS AGO

Roughly 85 per cent of all animal species on Earth die, thanks to an ice age that deprived the oceans of oxygen and flooded them with toxic metals.

2 DEVONIAN EXTINCTION: ~ 370 MILLION YEARS AGO

Low-oxygen oceanic ‘dead zones’, volcanic eruptions, and a possible meteorite impact are thought to drive up to 80 per cent of life on Earth to extinction.

3 PERMIANTRIASSIC EXTINCTION: ~ 250 MILLION YEARS AGO

Earth’s ‘Great

Dying’ kills nearly 96 per cent of marine life and 75 per cent of land animals, courtesy of volcanic eruptions and global warming.

4 TRIASSICJURASSIC EXTINCTION: ~ 210 MILLION YEARS AGO

Volcanic eruptions across Pangaea fill the atmosphere with CO2, triggering a global warming that wipes out almost 80 per cent of life on Earth.

5 CRETACEOUSPALEOGENE EXTINCTION: ~ 66 MILLION YEARS AGO

A 10 km-wide asteroid slams into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, and the resulting climate crisis kills up to 80 per cent of all species on Earth.