Mass Global Extinction Period
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A Mass Global Extinction Period is a mass extinction phase (with significant biodiversity loss) that is attributed to a change in life processes.
- AKA: Cyanobacteria-due Extinction Period.
- Context:
- It can (often) be associated with a Mass Extinction Cause.
- It can (typically) result in the complete eradication of certain species, often leading to significant shifts in the composition of ecosystems.
- It can (typically) be followed by periods of radiation, where the number of species diversifies rapidly.
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- Example(s):
- Great Oxygenation Event (~2.4 Bya.), also known as the Oxygen Catastrophe, occurred when photosynthetic organisms (cyanobacteria) began producing oxygen as a waste product, leading to significant changes in the Earth's atmosphere and the extinction of many anaerobic organisms.
- End-Ediacaran Extinction (~540 Mya.), which may have been due to the evolution and rapid spread of new, more advanced life forms during the Cambrian Explosion.
- Devonian Extinction (~375-359 Mya.), where changes in land plants, particularly the evolution and spread of large, tree-like plants, may have altered global carbon cycling and led to oxygen depletion in the oceans.
- Permian-Triassic Extinction (~252 Mya.), a possible biotic cause might be the proliferation of certain bacteria that produced large amounts of methane, potentially leading to drastic global warming and oxygen depletion in the oceans.
- A Human-due Extinction Period.
- A Superintelligences-due Extinction Period.
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- Counter-Example(s):
- a Mass Extinction Event, such as a Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event or a Nuclear Winter Event.
- an Evolutionary Radiation Events, which are periods marked by the rapid proliferation of new species.
- an Adaptive Radiation, which typically occurs after a mass extinction event, is not itself an extinction period.
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- See: Extinction Event, Paleontology, Geologic Time Scale, Biodiversity, Cyanobacteria, Photosynthesis, Oxygen.