Unlike what scientists have previously thought, life has flourished abundantly after the mass extinction. They have dug up fossils of sharks, sea reptiles and squid-like creatures in Idaho.
After seeing the fossils of almost 30 different animals on a river in Idaho, Scientists come to a conclusion that the marine ecosystem has thrived soon after the mass extinction. Daily Mail has reported that scientists have found out that even after the worldwide die-off at the end of the Permian Period about 252 million years ago, which approximately erased 90 percent of existing species, there was life after it. Not even the event 66 million years ago that killed hundreds of dinosaurs because of asteroids were comparable to what happened to the Permian Period.
The 30 different species were found in the Bear Lake County near the Idaho city of Paris. That discovery was remarkable as it proved that marine ecosystem was abundant and fine even after the mass extinction. It also showed a quick rebound from what happened. According to Reuters, paleontologists did not expect that. There was a diversity and complex assemblage of animals said paleontologist Arnaud Brayard of the University of Burgundy-Franche-Comté in France.
The dug up marine animals includes predators like sharks that were up to 7 feet long or 2 meters, marine reptiles and bony fishes.There were also squid-like living things as well as some sea animals with long conical shells while others are with coiled shells. There was even a scavenging crustacean with large eyes and strangely thin claws, starfish relatives, sponges plus some other animals.
The mass extinction or Permian die-off happened about 251.9 million years ago. Meanwhile, the Idaho ecosystem has flourished about 1.3 million years later. It is really fast if based on a geological scale. The mass extinction is actually still being debated by different scientists. However, other scientists are saying it was because of massive volcanic eruptions in northern Siberia. It has set free large amounts of greenhouse and toxic gasses, activating severe global warming and big fluctuations in oceanic chemistry including acidification and oxygen deficiency.
Researchers have always thought that the Early Triassic was a highly disturbed epoch. After what the scientists have discovered, they are definitely not thinking of that now.
