end-Triassic extinction
- Also called:
- Triassic-Jurassic extinction
end-Triassic extinction, global extinction event occurring at the end of the Triassic Period (about 252 million to 201 million years ago) that resulted in the demise of some 76 percent of all marine and terrestrial species and about 20 percent of all taxonomic families. It is thought that the end-Triassic extinction was the key moment that allowed dinosaurs to become the dominant land animals on Earth. The event ranks fourth in severity of the five major extinction episodes that span geologic time.
(Read E.O. Wilson’s Britannica essay on mass extinction.)
Although this event was less devastating than its counterpart at the end of the Permian Period, which occurred roughly 50 million years earlier and eliminated more than 95 percent of marine species and more than 70 percent of terrestrial ones (see Permian extinction), it did result in drastic reductions of some living populations. The end-Triassic extinction particularly affected the ammonoids and conodonts, two groups that serve as important index fossils for assigning relative ages to various strata in the Triassic System of rocks. Indeed, the conodonts and many Triassic ceratitid ammonoids became extinct. Only the phylloceratid ammonoids were able to survive, and they gave rise to the explosive radiation of cephalopods later in the Jurassic Period. In addition, many families of brachiopods, gastropods, bivalves, and marine reptiles also became extinct. On land a great part of the vertebrate fauna disappeared, although the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, crocodiles, turtles, mammals, and fishes were little affected by the transition. In fact, many authorities maintain that the end-Triassic mass extinction on land opened ecological niches that were filled relatively quickly by dinosaurs. Plant fossils and palynomorphs (spores and pollen of plants) show no significant changes in diversity across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary.
The cause of the end-Triassic extinction is a matter of considerable debate. Many scientists contend that this event was caused by climate change and rising sea levels resulting from the sudden release of large amounts of carbon dioxide. Studies estimate that the rifting of the supercontinent Pangea, where eastern North America met northwestern Africa, may have released up to 100,000 gigatons of carbon dioxide, which likely strengthened the global greenhouse effect, increasing average air temperatures around the globe by as much as 10–15 °C (18–27 °F) and acidifying the oceans. Modern studies examining the region’s flood basalts generated by this rifting reveal that the rocks were created during a 620,000-year interval of volcanic activity that occurred at the end of the Triassic. The volcanism of the first 40,000 years of this interval was particularly intense and coincided with the beginning of the mass extinction some 201.5 million years ago.
Other authorities suggest that the relatively modest heating caused by rising carbon dioxide concentrations in the atmosphere could have liberated massive amounts of methane trapped in permafrost and undersea ice. Methane, a much more effective greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide, could have then caused Earth’s atmosphere to warm significantly. In contrast, others maintain that the mass extinction was triggered by the impact of an extraterrestrial body (such as an asteroid or comet). There are also some who argue that the end-Triassic extinction was not the product of a single major event but simply a prolonged turnover of species across a considerable amount of time and thus should not be regarded as a mass extinction event.