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NWORK TITLE: The Worst of Times
WORK NOTES:
PSEUDONYM(S):
BIRTHDATE:
WEBSITE:
CITY: Leeds, England
STATE:
COUNTRY: United Kingdom
NATIONALITY: British
http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/people/p.wignall * http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/fileadmin/Documents/People/p.wignall_Academic_CV.pdf * http://blog.press.princeton.edu/2015/09/29/an-interview-with-paul-wignall-how-life-on-earth-survived-mass-extinctions/
RESEARCHER NOTES:
LOC still unavailable.
PERSONAL
Male.
EDUCATION:Attended Worcester College, University of Oxford, 1982-85; University of Birmingham/Natural History Museum, NERC/CASE PhD student, 1985-88.
ADDRESS
CAREER
University of Leicester, Leicester, England, NERC postdoctoral fellow, 1988-89; University of Leeds, Leeds, England, lecturer in paleontology, 1989-99, reader in paleoenvironment, 1999-2005, professor of paleoenvironment, 2005–, director of the Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Leeds, 2005-08. Palaeontological Association, marketing manager, 1989-92; Craven and Pendle Geological Society, co-founder, 1990–; Hong Kong University, Royal Society – Kan Tong Po Visiting Professor, 2005-06.
Has appeared in television documentaries, including several documentaries for the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC): The Extinction Files, 1999; The Mystery of the Jurassic, 2002; The Day the Earth Nearly Died, 2003; and Earth: Power of the Planet (scientific adviser), 2007. Other documentary appearances include Miracle Planet 2: Episode 4: The Mass Extinctions, NHK Specials, Japan, 2004; Extinctions in the History of Life,KBS (Korean Broadcasting), 2004; Wipeout,Discovery Channel, 2004; Supercontinent, Granada TV productions for National Geographic, 2008; Permian Mass Extinction, Pioneer Productions for Channel 4, 2008; and How the Earth Was Made: Earth’s Deadliest Eruptions,. Pioneer Productions for National Geographic, 2010.
Yorkshire Geological Society (president, 2009-2010).
Fearnsides Prize, Yorkshire Geological Society, 1989, outstanding young scientist; President’s Award, Geological Society, London, 1991, for outstanding research by a young scientist; the Clough Award, Edinburgh Geological Society, 1997; the James Lee Wilson Award, Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM), 2004, for excellence in sedimentology; Royal Society Leverhulme Advanced Fellowship, 2008-09.
WRITINGS
Series editor for “Developments in Paleontology and Stratigraphy, Elsevier, 2001-2012; managing editor Earth-Science Reviews 2010–. Serves on the editorial boards of Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 1997–; Geological magazine, 2002–; Geology, 2005-07; Geobiology, 2005-08, Chemical Geology, 2008–; Geoscience Frontiers, 2010–.
SIDELIGHTS
Paul B. Wignall is an environmental paleontologist whose research focuses on understanding the origins of mass extinction events. His initial research that started in the late 1980s focused on the end-Permian mass extinction. He later broadened his research topics to include the late Devonian (Frasnian/Famennian), end-Triassic and Early Jurassic (Toarcian) mass extinction events. He is especially interest in the origins of these events. His other main research interest is the characterisation of black shale depositional environments. In the course of his research, Wignall has to travel to many parts of the globe, including Nevada and central Poland. He is the author of 130 research articles.
In his book titled The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions, Wignall examines the mysteries behind a wave of cataclysmic extinctions that occurred on Earth approximate 260 million years ago, wiping out nearly every species on the planet. In the process, he examines in depth the supercontinent known as Pangea and the role it possibly played in these extinction events. Pangea was an enormous land mass that formed around 300 million years ago and then fell apart into pieces that subsequently drifted across the oceans to form the modern-day continents.
Drawing from his own field research and recent research and discoveries, Wignall presents the latest information on what scientists have discovered about what is considered the most prolonged and calamitous environmental crisis on Earth covering a vast stretch of time. Wangle points out that in pre-Pangaea times two mass extinctions already had occurred. However,the formation of the super-continent Pangea appears to have drastically sped up the occurrence of mass extinctions over a long period of time. According to Wignall the mass extinctions resulted in more than ninety percent of all species disappearing from the planet.
“For eighty million years, there was a whole series of mass extinctions; it was the most intense period of catastrophes the world has ever known,” Wignall told Princeton University Press Blog contributor Debra Liese, adding: “These extinctions included the end-Permian mass extinction, the worst disaster of all time. All life on earth was affected, from plankton in the oceans to forests on land. Coral reefs were repeatedly decimated, and land animals, dominated by primitive reptiles and amphibians, lost huge numbers of species.” Geologic research has shown that during this extinction period volcanic eruptions last a million years, spewing huge amounts of lava over the surface. In Siberia, scientists estimate that somewhere between two and three million cubic kilometers of land was covered by lava, sometimes 3,000 meters thick in places.
Overall, during the supercontinent’s existence between 260 and 180 million years, the period saw another mass extinction event as well as four other smaller scale extinction events. In his exploration of what what caused these catastrophes, Wignall notes that their is some conclusive evidence to be found for the use of these catastrophes in the form of flood basalts, which are extremely large fields of lava. Wignall delves into the problem of linking volcanic eruptions to the extinction events with the key lying in the role that volcanic gas emissions play. “The eruptions filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide while also setting off chain reactions that created hot, de-oxygenated, acidic oceans, killing off much marine life,” noted Inside Higher Ed Web site contributor Scott McLemee.
Wignall also delves into why these catastrophic events stopped happening and links their stoppage to the breakup of Pangea, which seems to have stopped the horrendous impact of flood basalt eruptions. Wignall also discusses how these major extinction events led to the development of much more resilient forms of life. “Well written and persuasive, the book is valuable for all academic libraries,” wrote Choice contributor B.E. Fleury. Noting that The Worst of Times includes some “difficult terminology,” a Publishers Weekly contributor went on to remark: “Wignall explains the relevant concepts to laypersons, making for a great example of scientific sleuthing.”
BIOCRIT
PERIODICALS
Publishers Weekly, August 17, 2015, review of The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions. p. 64.
Choice, April, 2016, B.E. Fleury, review of The Worst of Times, p. 1194.
ONLINE
Inside Higher Ed, https://www.insidehighered.com (October 14, 2015), Scott McLemee, review of The Worst of Times
New Scientist, https://www.newscientist.com (October 7, 2015), Matthew Cobb, “How Fish Dodged Extinction’s Bullet,” review of The Worst of Times
Princeton University Press Blog, http://blog.press.princeton.edu/ (September 29, 2015), Debra Liese, “An Interview with Paul Wignall: How Life on Earth Survived Mass Extinctions.”
Silk & Serif, http://silk-serif.com (August 20, 2015), review of The Worst of Times
University of Leeds School of Earth and Environment Web site, http://www.see.leeds.ac.uk/ (April 5, 2017), author faculty profile and CV.*
PROFESSOR PAUL WIGNALLSchool of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds, LS2 9JT, UKTel. 0113 3435247FAX. 0113 3435259Email: p.wignall@see.leeds.ac.ukCareer History2005 Professor of Palaeoenvironments, University of Leeds1999-2005 Reader in Palaeoenvironments, University of Leeds1989-1999 Lecturer in Palaeontology, University of Leeds1988-1989 NERC Postdoctoral Fellow, University of Leicester1985-1988 NERC/CASE PhD student, University of Birmingham/Natural History Museum.1982-1985 Student, Worcester College, University of Oxford.Awards + Distinctions2008-2009. Royal Society Leverhulme Advanced Fellowship.2005-2006.Royal Society –Kan Tong Po Visiting Professor, Hong Kong University.2006.Geological Society of America. GeologyExceptional Reviewer.2004.The James Lee Wilson Award, for excellence in sedimentology from the Society for Sedimentary Geology (SEPM).1997.The Clough Award, Edinburgh Geological Society.1991.President's Award,Geological Society, London, for outstanding research by a young scientist.1989.Fearnsides Prize, Yorkshire Geological Society, outstanding young scientist.1988.Cecil Barber Prize from Birmingham University for best PhD in Earth Sciences.1985. Geologydegree, 1stClass, University of Oxford.1983-85Open Scholarship, Worcester College, Oxford University.Society/Committee Activities2014 Member of REF Review Panel B72010-2012 External Examiner University College London, Earth Sciences BSc and MSci earth science degrees.2009-2010President Yorkshire Geological Society.2008-2012: NERC peer review panel.2007-2008President of the Leeds Geological Association.2006-2008 External Examiner, MSci degree schemes, University of Durham Earth Sciences.2005-2008Director of the Institute of Geological Sciences, University of Leeds.2005: External Examiner Royal Holloway 2003-2008: Steering Committee of LIP Commission.1992-1997 & 1999-2005 Programme Secretary of the Yorkshire Geological Society.1990-Co-founder of the Craven and Pendle Geological Society.1989-1992. Marketing Manager, Palaeontological Association.Editorial Activities2010 –present: Managing editorEarth-Science Reviews2010-present
Wignall publications22010 –present: Editorial Board. Geoscience Frontiers.2008-present: Editorial Board, Chemical Geology.2005-2008: Editorial Board Geobiology.2004-2007: Editorial boardGeology.2002-present: Editorial BoardGeological Magazine2001 –2012: Series Editor, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, Elsevier 1997-present: Editorial board:Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology.Recent Research Grants2012-2015 Investigating the effects of past global ocean acidification on marine ecosystems: a novel approach using a multiproxy approach.€343 055 Marie Curie. 2011-2012. Boreal extinction and recovery patterns in the Permian of Spitsbergen.£63 124. NERC.2006-2009. Examining the volcanism-extinction link: an end-Guadalupian case study. £691 268, NERC.2005-2007. Defining the role of atmospheric sulphur in the Permo-Triassic terrestrial extinction. £27 924, NERC.2004-2007. Emeishan flood basalts and the end-Guadalupian mass extinction. HK $ 333 000 Chinese NSF and Kong Kong Univ. 2002-2004 Carbon isotope and environmental changes during the end-Triassic mass extinction. £21 176, NERC.1999-2003 New developments in palaeoceanography and taphonomy utilising laser ablation studies of pyrite sulphur isotopes. £ 173 231, NERC.TV Documentary Appearances1999 The Extinction Files. BBC22002 The Mystery of the Jurassic. BBC Horizon2003 The Day the Earth Nearly Died. BBC Horizon.2004 Miracle Planet 2: Episode 4: the Mass Extinctions. NHK Specials, Japan.2004 Extinctions in the History of Life. KBS (Korean Broadcasting).2006. Wipeout. Discovery Channel2007 Earth: Power of the Planet. BBC 1 (Scientific adviser)2008. Supercontinent. Granada TV productions for National Geographic.2008. Permian Mass Extinction. Pioneer Productions for Channel 4.2010. How the Earth Was Made: Earth’s Deadliest Eruptions. Pioneer Productions for National Geographic.
Prof Paul Wignall
Professor of Palaeoenvironments
Telephone number: +44(0) 113 34 35247
Email address: P.B.Wignall@leeds.ac.uk
Room: 8.23 SCR
Affiliation: Earth Surface Science Institute
Link to personal page
Biography
Research
Professor Paul Wignall lectures in palaeontology and sedimentology. His principal research goal is to understand the origins of mass extinction events. He has been investigating the end-Permian mass extinction since the late 1980s and in recent years has broadened his research topics to include the late Devonian (Frasnian/Famennian), end-Triassic and Early Jurassic (Toarcian) mass extinction events. His multidisciplinary approach to the origins of these crises in Earth's history includes the study of their fossil, sequence stratigraphic and their stable isotope records. Evidence for marine anoxia is often associated with all of these extinction events and this nicely overlaps with Professor Wignall's other main research interest: the characterisation of black shale depositional environments. As many of the key extinction boundary sections are not found in West Yorkshire, Professor Wignall has been forced to travel to often remote parts of the globe: his favourite field areas to date have been Nevada and central Poland. He has published over 130 research articles and 2 books.
Academic CV (pdf file)
Publications
Sun YD; Liu XT; Yan JX; Li B; Chen B; Bond DPG; Joachimski MM; Wignall PB; Wang X; Lai XL (2017) Permian (Artinskian to Wuchapingian) conodont biostratigraphy in the Tieqiao section, Laibin area, South China, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 465, pp.42-63. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2016.10.013
Jiang H; Wignall PB; Chen ZQ; Xie S; Lai X; Song H; Wang L (2017) Comment on “Quantitative biochronology of the Permian-Triassic boundary in South China based on conodont unitary associations” by Brosse et al. (2016), Earth-Science Reviews, 164, pp.257-258. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2016.07.008
BOND DPG; BLOMEIER DPG; DUSTIRA AM; WIGNALL PB; COLLINS D; GOODE T; GROEN RD; BUGGISCH W; GRASBY SE (2017) Sequence stratigraphy, basin morphology and sea-level history for the Permian Kapp Starostin Formation of Svalbard, Norway, Geological Magazine, pp.1-17. doi: 10.1017/S0016756816001126
Huang Y; Chen ZQ; Wignall PB; Zhao L (2017) Latest Permian to Middle Triassic redox condition variations in ramp settings, South China: Pyrite framboid evidence, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 129, pp.229-243. doi: 10.1130/B31458.1
FAGGETTER LE; WIGNALL PB; PRUSS SB; SUN Y; RAINE RJ; NEWTON RJ; WIDDOWSON M; JOACHIMSKI MM; SMITH PM (2016) Sequence stratigraphy, chemostratigraphy and facies analysis of Cambrian Series 2 - Series 3 boundary strata in northwestern Scotland, Geological Magazine, pp.1-13. doi: 10.1017/S0016756816000947
Sun YD; Wignall PB; Joachimski MM; Bond DPG; Grasby SE; Lai XL; Wang LN; Zhang ZT; Sun S (2016) Climate warming, euxinia and carbon isotope perturbations during the Carnian (Triassic) Crisis in South China, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 444, pp.88-100. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2016.03.037
Witts JD; Whittle RJ; Wignall PB; Crame JA; Francis JE; Newton RJ; Bowman VC (2016) Macrofossil evidence for a rapid and severe Cretaceous-Paleogene mass extinction in Antarctica, Nature Communications, 7, . doi: 10.1038/ncomms11738
Zhang ZT; Sun YD; Lai XL; Joachimski MM; Wignall PB (2016) Early Carnian conodont fauna at Yongyue, Zhenfeng area and its implication for Ladinian-Carnian subdivision in Guizhou, South China, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, . doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2017.02.011
Wignall PB; Van De Schootbrugge B (2016) Middle Phanerozoic mass extinctions and a tribute to the work of Professor Tony Hallam, Geological Magazine, 153, pp.195-200. doi: 10.1017/S0016756815000199
Ruffell A; Simms MJ; Wignall PB (2016) The Carnian Humid Episode of the late Triassic: A review, Geological Magazine, 153, pp.271-284. doi: 10.1017/S0016756815000424
Song H; Tong J; Wignall PB; Luo M; Tian L; Song H; Huang Y; Chu D (2016) Early Triassic disaster and opportunistic foraminifers in South China, Geological Magazine, 153, pp.298-315. doi: 10.1017/S0016756815000497
Van De Schootbrugge B; Wignall PB (2016) A tale of two extinctions: Converging end-Permian and end-Triassic scenarios, Geological Magazine, 153, pp.332-354. doi: 10.1017/S0016756815000643
Wignall PB; Bond DPG; Sun Y; Grasby SE; Beauchamp B; Joachimski MM; Blomeier DPG (2016) Ultra-shallow-marine anoxia in an Early Triassic shallow-marine clastic ramp (Spitsbergen) and the suppression of benthic radiation, Geological Magazine, 153, pp.316-331. doi: 10.1017/S0016756815000588
Bijkerk JF; Eggenhuisen JT; Kane IA; Meijer N; Waters CN; Wignall PB; McCaffrey WD (2016) FLUVIO-MARINE SEDIMENT PARTITIONING AS A FUNCTION OF BASIN WATER DEPTH, JOURNAL OF SEDIMENTARY RESEARCH, 86, pp.217-235. doi: 10.2110/jsr.2016.9
Van De Schootbrugge B; Wignall PB (2016) Special Issue Mass Extinctions - Preface, Geological Magazine, 153, pp.193-194. doi: 10.1017/S0016756815001107
Grasby SE; Beauchamp B; Bond DPG; Wignall PB; Sanei H (2016) Mercury anomalies associated with three extinction events (Capitanian Crisis, Latest Permian Extinction and the Smithian/Spathian Extinction) in NW Pangea, Geological Magazine, 153, pp.285-297. doi: 10.1017/S0016756815000436
Wang L; Wignall PB; Wang Y; Jiang H; Sun Y; Li G; Yuan J; Lai X (2016) Depositional conditions and revised age of the Permo-Triassic microbialites at Gaohua section, Cili County (Hunan Province, South China), Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 443, pp.156-166. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.11.032
Yin D; Peakall J; Parsons D; Chen Z; Averill HM; Wignall P; Best J (2016) Bedform genesis in bedrock substrates: Insights into formative processes from a new experimental approach and the importance of suspension-dominated abrasion, Geomorphology, 255, pp.26-38. doi: 10.1016/j.geomorph.2015.12.008
Jerram DA; Widdowson M; Wignall PB; Sun Y; Lai X; Bond DPG; Torsvik TH (2016) Submarine palaeoenvironments during Emeishan flood basalt volcanism, SW China: Implications for plume-lithosphere interaction during the Capitanian, Middle Permian ('end Guadalupian') extinction event, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 441, pp.65-73. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.06.009
Schmidt A; Skeffington RA; Thordarson T; Self S; Forster PM; Rap A; Ridgwell A; Fowler D; Wilson M; Mann GW; Wignall PB; Carslaw KS (2016) Selective environmental stress from sulphur emitted by continental flood basalt eruptions, Nature Geoscience, 9, pp.77-82. doi: 10.1038/ngeo2588
Jiang H; Joachimski MM; Wignall PB; Zhang M; Lai X (2015) A delayed end-Permian extinction in deep-water locations and its relationship to temperature trends (Bianyang, Guizhou Province, South China), Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 440, pp.690-695. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.10.002
Grasby SE; Beauchamp B; Bond DPG; Wignall PB; Talavera C; Galloway JM; Piepjohn K; Reinhardt L; Blomeier D (2015) Progressive environmental deterioration in northwestern Pangea leading to the latest Permian extinction, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 127, pp.1331-1347. doi: 10.1130/B31197.1
Wignall PB (2015) The Worst of Times How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions, Princeton University Press.
Song H; Wignall PB; Tong J; Song H; Chen J; Chu D; Tian L; Luo M; Zong K; Chen Y; Lai X; Zhang K; Wang H (2015) Integrated Sr isotope variations and global environmental changes through the Late Permian to early Late Triassic, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 424, pp.140-147. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2015.05.035
Sun YD; Wignall PB; Joachimski MM; Bond DPG; Grasby SE; Sun S; Yan CB; Wang LN; Chen YL; Lai XL (2015) High amplitude redox changes in the late Early Triassic of South China and the Smithian-Spathian extinction, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 427, pp.62-78. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2015.03.038
Witts JD; Bowman VC; Wignall PB; Alistair Crame J; Francis JE; Newton RJ (2015) Evolution and extinction of Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous) cephalopods from the López de Bertodano Formation, Seymour Island, Antarctica, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 418, pp.193-212. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.11.002
Bond DPG; Wignall PB; Joachimski MM; Sun Y; Savov I; Grasby SE; Beauchamp B; Blomeier DPG (2015) An abrupt extinction in the Middle Permian (Capitanian) of the Boreal Realm (Spitsbergen) and its link to anoxia and acidification, Bulletin of the Geological Society of America, 127, pp.1411-1421. doi: 10.1130/B31216.1
Metodiev L; Savov IP; Grocke D; Wignall P; Newton R; Andreeva P; Koleva-Rekavola E (2014) Palaeoenvironmental conditions recorded by 87Sr/86Sr, d13C and d18O in Late Pliensbachian-Toarcian (Jurassic) belemnites from Bulgaria, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 409, pp.98-113. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2014.04.025
Fletcher T (2014) Hydrodynamics of fossil fishes, Proceedings. Biological sciences / The Royal Society, 281, pp.20140703. doi: 10.1098/rspb.2014.0703
Jiang H; Lai X; Sun Y; Wignall PB; Liu J; Yan C (2014) Permian-Triassic conodonts from Dajiang (Guizhou, South China) and their implication for the age of microbialite deposition in the aftermath of the End-Permian mass extinction, Journal of Earth Science, 25, pp.413-430. doi: 10.1007/s12583-014-0444-4
Song H; Wignall PB; Chu D; Tong J; Sun Y; Song H; He W; Tian L (2014) Anoxia/high temperature double whammy during the Permian-Triassic marine crisis and its aftermath, Scientific Reports, 4, . doi: 10.1038/srep04132
Bond DPG; Wignall PB (2014) Large igneous provinces and mass extinctions: An update, 505, pp.29-55. doi: 10.1130/2014.2505(02)
Wignall PB; Newton R (2014) Reply, Palaios, 19, pp.102-104. doi: 10.1669/0883-1351(2004)019.0102:R.2.0.CO;2
Yan C; Wang L; Jiang H; Wignall PB; Sun Y; Chen Y; Lai X (2013) Uppermost permian to lower triassic conodonts at bianyang section, Guihzou Province, South China, Palaios, 28, pp.509-522. doi: 10.2110/palo.2012.p12-077r
Algeo TJ; Fraiser ML; Wignall PB; Winguth AME (2013) Permian-Triassic paleoceanography, Global and Planetary Change, 105, pp.1-6. doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2013.03.001
Sun Y; Joachimski MM; Wignall PB; Yan C; Chen Y; Jiang H; Wang L; Lai X (2013) Response to comment on "Lethally Hot Temperatures during the Early Triassic Greenhouse", Science, 339, pp.1093-1095. doi: 10.1126/science.1233090
Dustira AM; Wignall PB; Joachimski M; Blomeier D; Hartkopf-Fröder C; Bond DPG (2013) Gradual onset of anoxia across the Permian-Triassic Boundary in Svalbard, Norway, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 374, pp.303-313. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.02.004
Sun Y; Joachimski MM; Wignall PB; Yan C; Chen Y; Jiang H; Wang L; Lai X (2013) Response to comment on "lethally hot temperatures during the Early Triassic greenhouse"., Science (New York, N.Y.), 339, pp.1033.
Song H; Wignall PB; Tong J; Yin H (2013) Two pulses of extinction during the Permian-Triassic crisis, Nature Geoscience, 6, pp.52-56. doi: 10.1038/ngeo1649
Dustira AM; Wignall PB; Bond DPG; Joachimski M; Blomeier D; Hartkopf-Fröder C (2013) Gradual onset of anoxia across the Permian-Triassic Boundary in Svalbard, Norway, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, . doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2013.02.004
Bond DPG; Zatoń M; Marynowski L; Wignall PB (2013) Evidence for shallow-water 'Upper Kellwasser' anoxia in the Frasnian-Famennian reefs of Alberta, Canada, Lethaia, . doi: 10.1111/let.12014
Song H; Wignall PB; Tong J; Bond DPG; Song H; Lai X; Zhang K; Wang H; Chen Y (2012) Geochemical evidence from bio-apatite for multiple oceanic anoxic events during Permian-Triassic transition and the link with end-Permian extinction and recovery, Earth and Planetary Science Letters, 353-354, pp.12-21. doi: 10.1016/j.epsl.2012.07.005
Sun Y; Joachimski MM; Wignall PB; Yan C; Chen Y; Jiang H; Wang L; Lai X (2012) Lethally hot temperatures during the Early Triassic greenhouse., Science, 338, pp.366-370. doi: 10.1126/science.1224126
Zhou L; Wignall PB; Su J; Feng Q; Xie S; Zhao L; Huang J (2012) U/Mo ratios and δ98/95Mo as local and global redox proxies during mass extinction events, Chemical Geology, 324-325, pp.18-39. doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2012.03.020
Richoz S; Van De Schootbrugge B; Pross J; Püttmann W; Quan TM; Lindström S; Heunisch C; Fiebig J; Maquil R; Schouten S; Hauzenberger CA; Wignall PB (2012) Hydrogen sulphide poisoning of shallow seas following the end-Triassic extinction, Nature Geoscience, 5, pp.662-667. doi: 10.1038/ngeo1539
Yang B; Lai X; Wignall PB; Jiang H; Yan C; Sun Y (2012) A newly discovered earliest Triassic chert at Gaimao section, Guizhou, southwestern China, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 344-345, pp.69-77. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2012.05.019
Wignall PB; Bond DPG; Newton RJ; Haas J; Hips K; Wang W; Jiang H; Lai X; Sun Y; Altiner D; Védrine S; Zajzon N (2012) Capitanian (middle Permian) mass extinction and recovery in western Tethys: A fossil, facies, and δ C study from Hungary and Hydra island (Greece), Palaios, 27, pp.78-89. doi: 10.2110/palo.2011.p11-058r
Dal Corso J; Mietto P; Newton RJ; Pancost RD; Preto N; Roghi G; Wignall PB (2012) Discovery of a major negative delta C-13 spike in the Carnian (Late Triassic) linked to the eruption of Wrangellia flood basalts, GEOLOGY, 40, pp.79-82. doi: 10.1130/G32473.1
Wang H; Shao L; Newton RJ; Bottrell SH; Wignall PB; Large DJ (2012) Records of terrestrial sulfur deposition from the latest Permian coals in SW China, Chemical Geology, 292-293, pp.18-24. doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2011.11.005
Zhou L; Su J; Feng Q; Zhao L; Huang J; Wignall PB; Xie S (2012) U/Mo ratios and δ Mo as local and global redox proxies during mass extinction events, Chemical Geology, . doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2012.03.020
Xie SC; Pancost RD; Wang YB; Yang H; Wignall PB; Luo GM; Jia CL; Chen L (2011) Cyanobacterial blooms tied to volcanism during the 5 m.y. Permo-Triassic biotic crisis Reply, GEOLOGY, 39, pp.E249-E249. doi: 10.1130/G32293Y.1
Wignall PB (2011) Earth science: Lethal volcanism., Nature, 477, pp.285-286. doi: 10.1038/477285a
Song HJ; Wignall PB; Chen ZQ; Tong JN; Bond DPG; Lai XL; Zhao XM; Jiang HS; Yan CB; Niu ZJ; Chen J; Yang H; Wang YB (2011) Recovery tempo and pattern of marine ecosystems after the end-Permian mass extinction, GEOLOGY, 39, pp.739-742. doi: 10.1130/G32191.1
Peate IU; Bryan SE; Wignall PB; Jerram DA; Ali JR (2011) Comment on 'Paleokarst on the top of the Maokou Formation: Further evidence for domal crustal uplift prior to the Emeishan flood volcanism', LITHOS, 125, pp.1006-1008. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2011.03.021
Macdonald HA; Peakall J; Wignall PB; Best J (2011) Sedimentation in deep-sea lobe-elements: implications for the origin of thickening-upward sequences, J GEOL SOC LONDON, 168, pp.319-331. doi: 10.1144/0016-76492010-036
Wang H; Shao LY; Large DJ; Wignall PB (2011) Constraints on carbon accumulation rate and net primary production in the Lopingian (Late Permian) tropical peatland in SW China, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 300, pp.152-157. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.12.019
Newton RJ; Reeves EP; Kafousia N; Wignall PB; Bottrell SH; Sha J (2011) Low marine sulfate concentrations and the isolation of the European epicontinental sea during the Early Jurassic, Geology, 39, pp.7-10. doi: 10.1130/g31326.1
Wang H; Shao LY; Hao LM; Zhang PF; Glasspool IJ; Wheeley JR; Wignall PB; Yi TS; Zhang MQ; Hilton J (2011) Sedimentology and sequence stratigraphy of the Lopingian (Late Permian) coal measures in southwestern China, INT J COAL GEOL, 85, pp.168-183. doi: 10.1016/j.coal.2010.11.003
Bond DPG; Hilton J; Wignall PB; Ali JR; Stevens LG; Sun YD; Lai XL (2010) The Middle Permian (Capitanian) mass extinction on land and in the oceans, EARTH-SCI REV, 102, pp.100-116. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.07.004
Sun YD; Lai XL; Wignall PB; Widdowson M; Ali JR; Jiang HS; Wang W; Yan CB; Bond DPG; Vedrine S (2010) Dating the onset and nature of the Middle Permian Emeishan large igneous province eruptions in SW China using conodont biostratigraphy and its bearing on mantle plume uplift models, LITHOS, 119, pp.20-33. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2010.05.012
John EH; Wignall PB; Newton RJ; Bottrell SH (2010) delta S-34(CAS) and delta O-18(CAS) records during the Frasnian-Famennian (Late Devonian) transition and their bearing on mass extinction models, CHEM GEOL, 275, pp.221-234. doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2010.05.012
John EH; Wignall PB; Newton RJ; Bottrell SH (2010) δ34SCAS and δ18OCAS records during the Frasnian-Famennian (Late Devonian) transition and their bearing on mass extinction models, Chemical Geology, 275, pp.221-234. doi: 10.1016/j.chemgeo.2010.05.012
Bond DPG; Wignall PB; Wang W; Izon G; Jiang HS; Lai XL; Sun YD; Newton RJ; Shao LY; Vedrine S; Cope H (2010) The mid-Capitanian (Middle Permian) mass extinction and carbon isotope record of South China, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 292, pp.282-294. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.03.056
Luo GM; Huang JH; Xie SC; Wignall PB; Tang XY; Huang XY; Yin HF (2010) Relationships between carbon isotope evolution and variation of microbes during the Permian-Triassic transition at Meishan Section, South China, INT J EARTH SCI, 99, pp.775-784. doi: 10.1007/s00531-009-0421-9
Bond DPG; Wignall PB; Wang W; Vedrine S; Jiang HS; Lai XL; Sun YD; Newton RJ; Cope H; Izon G (2010) The mid-Capitanian (middle Permian) mass extinction and carbon isotope record of south China., Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 292, pp.282-294. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.03.056
Xie SC; Pancost RD; Wang YB; Yang H; Wignall PB; Luo GM; Jia CL; Chen L (2010) Cyanobacterial blooms tied to volcanism during the 5 m.y. Permo-Triassic biotic crisis, GEOLOGY, 38, pp.447-450. doi: 10.1130/G30769.1
Archibald JD; Clemens WA; Padian K; Rowe T; Macleod N; Barrett PM; Gale A; Holroyd P; Sues HD; Arens NC; Horner JR; Wilson GP; Goodwin MB; Brochu CA; Lofgren DL; Hurlbert SH; Hartman JH; Eberth DA; Wignall PB; Currie PJ; Weil A; Prasad GV; Dingus L; Courtillot V; Milner A; Milner A; Bajpai S; Ward DJ; Sahni A (2010) Cretaceous extinctions: multiple causes., Science, 328, pp.973. doi: 10.1126/science.328.5981.973-a
Preto N; Kustatscher E; Wignall PB (2010) Triassic climates - State of the art and perspectives, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 290, pp.1-10. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2010.03.015
Wignall PB (2010) PALAEONTOLOGY Safer in the south, NAT GEOSCI, 3, pp.228-229. doi: 10.1038/ngeo827
Brookfield; M E; Shellnutt; J G; Qi; L; Hannigan; R; Bhat; G M; Wignall P (2010) Platinum element group variations at the Permo-Triassic boundary in Kashmir and British Columbia and their significance, Chemical Geology, 272, pp.12-19.
Wignall PB; Bond DPG; Kuwahara K; Kakuwa Y; Newton RJ; Poulton SW (2010) An 80 million year oceanic redox history from Permian to Jurassic pelagic sediments of the Mino-Tamba terrane, SW Japan, and the origin of four mass extinctions., Global and Planetary Change, 71, pp.109-123. doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2010.01.022
Bond DPG; Wignall PB (2010) Pyrite framboid study of marine Permo-Triassic boundary sections: a complex anoxic event and its relationship to contemporaneous mass extinction, Geological Society of America Bulletin, 122, pp.1265-1279. doi: 10.1130/B30042.1
Wignall PB; Racki G (2009) Comment on "Mantle plume: The invisible serial killer - Application to the Permian-Triassic boundary mass extinction", by E. Heydari, N. Arzani and J. Hassanzadeh [Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 264 (2008) 147-162], PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 283, pp.99-101. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2009.02.031
Wignall PB; Vedrine S; Bond DPG; Wang W; Lai XL; Ali JR; Jiang HS (2009) Facies analysis and sea-level change at the Guadalupian-Lopingian Global Stratotype (Laibin, South China), and its bearing on the end-Guadalupian mass extinction, J GEOL SOC LONDON, 166, pp.655-666. doi: 10.1144/0016-76492008-118
Wignall PB; Kershaw S; Collin PY; Crasquin-Soleau S (2009) Erosional truncation of uppermost Permian shallow-marine carbonates and implications for Permian-Triassic boundary events: Comment, GEOL SOC AM BULL, 121, pp.954-956. doi: 10.1130/B26424.1
Wignall PB; Sun YD; Bond DPG; Izon G; Newton RJ; Vedrine S; Widdowson M; Ali JR; Lai XL; Jiang HS; Cope H; Bottrell SH (2009) Volcanism, Mass Extinction, and Carbon Isotope Fluctuations in the Middle Permian of China, SCIENCE, 324, pp.1179-1182. doi: 10.1126/science.1171956
Zaton M; Marynowski L; Szczepanik P; Bond DPG; Wignall PB (2009) Redox conditions during sedimentation of the Middle Jurassic (Upper Bajocian-Bathonian) clays of the Polish Jura (south-central Poland), FACIES, 55, pp.103-114. doi: 10.1007/s10347-008-0159-z
Bond DPG; Wignall PB (2009) Latitudinal selectivity of foraminifer extinctions during the late Guadalupian crisis, PALEOBIOLOGY, 35, pp.465-483.
Wignall P; Racki G (2009) Mantle plume: The invisible serial killer - Application to the Permian-Triassic boundary mass extinction. Comment, Palaeogeography Palaeoclimatology Palaeoecology, 283, pp.99-101.
Bond DPG; Wignall PB (2009) Abstract of “The role of sea-level change and marine anoxia in the Frasnian-Famennian (Late Devonian) mass extinction”, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 273, pp.365-367. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.12.012
Lai XL; Wang W; Wignall PB; Bond DG; Jiang HS; Ali JR; John EH; Sun YD (2008) Palaeoenvironmental change during the end-Guadalupian (Permian) mass extinction in Sichuan, China, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 269, pp.78-93. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.08.005
John EH; Cliff R; Wignall PB (2008) A positive trend in seawater Sr-87/Sr-86 values over the Early-Middle Frasnian boundary (Late Devonian) recorded in well-preserved conodont elements from the Holy Cross Mountains, Poland, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 269, pp.166-175. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.04.031
Sun YD; Lai XL; Jiang HS; Luo GM; Sun S; Yan CB; Wignall PB (2008) Guadalupian (Middle Permian) Conodont Faunas at Shangsi Section, Northeast Sichuan Province, J CHINA UNIV GEOSCI, 19, pp.451-460.
Luo GM; Lai XL; Shi GR; Jiang HS; Yin HF; Xie SC; Tong JN; Zhang KX; He WH; Wignall PB (2008) Size variation of conodont elements of the Hindeodus-Isarcicella clade during the Permian-Triassic transition in South China and its implication for mass extinction, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 264, pp.176-187. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.04.015
Bond DPG; Wignall PB (2008) The role of sea-level change and marine anoxia in the Frasnian-Famennian (Late Devonian) mass extinction, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 263, pp.107-118. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2008.02.015
Wignall PB; Bond DPG (2008) The end-Triassic and Early Jurassic mass extinction records in the British Isles, P GEOLOGIST ASSOC, 119, pp.73-84.
Luo G-M; Lai X-L; Feng Q-L; Jiang H-S; Wignall P; Zhang K-X; Sun Y-D; Wu J (2008) End-Permian conodont fauna from Dongpan section: Correlation between the deep- and shallow-water facies, Science in China Series D: Earth Sciences, 51, pp.1611-1622.
Wignall P (2008) The End-Permian crisis, aftermath and subsequent recovery, In: Okada; H; Mawatari; F S; Suzuki; N; Gautam; P (Ed) Origin and Evolution of Natural Diversity, 21st Century for Neo-Science of Natural History, Hokkaido University, pp.43-48.
Wignall PB (2007) The End-Permian mass extinction - how bad did it get?, GEOBIOLOGY, 5, pp.303-309. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-4669.2007.00130.x
Xie SC; Pancost RD; Huang JH; Wignall PB; Yu JX; Tang XY; Chen L; Huang XY; Lai XL (2007) Changes in the global carbon cycle occurred as two episodes during the Permian-Triassic crisis, GEOLOGY, 35, pp.1083-1086. doi: 10.1130/G24224A.1
Wignall PB; Zonneveld JP; Newton RJ; Amor K; Sephton MA; Hartley S (2007) The end Triassic mass extinction record of Williston Lake, British Columbia, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 253, pp.385-406. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2007.06.020
McArthur JM; Wignall PB (2007) Comment on "Non-uniqueness and interpretation of the seawater Sr-87/Sr-86 curve" by Dave Waltham and Darren R. Grocke (GCA, 70, 2006, 384-394), GEOCHIM COSMOCHIM AC, 71, pp.3382-3386. doi: 10.1016/j.gca.2006.10.026
Ali JR; Wignall PB (2007) Comment on "Fusiline biotic turnover across the Guadaluplan-Lopingian (middle-upper Permian) boundary in mid-oceanic carbonate build-ups: Biostratigraphy of accreted limestone in Japan" by Ayano Ota and Yukio Isozaki, J ASIAN EARTH SCI, 30, pp.199-200. doi: 10.1016/j.jseaes.2006.11.003
Jiang HS; Lai XL; Luo GM; Aldridge R; Zhang KX; Wignall PB (2007) Restudy of conodont zonation and evolution across the P/T boundary at Meishan section, Changxing, Zhejiang, China, Global and Planetary Change, 55, pp.39-55. doi: 10.1016/j.gloplacha.2006.06.007
Wignall PB; Hallam A; Newton RJ; Sha JG; Reeves E; Mattioli E; Crowley S (2006) An eastern Tethyan (Tibetan) record of the Early Jurassic (Toarcian) mass extinction event, GEOBIOLOGY, 4, pp.179-190. doi: 10.1111/j.1472-4669.2006.00081.x
Wignall PB; McArthur JM; Little CTS; Hallam A (2006) Palaeoceanography - Methane release in the Early Jurassic period, NATURE, 441, pp.E5-E5. doi: 10.1038/nature04905
Bond D; Wignall PB (2005) Chapter 9Evidence for late devonian (kellwasser) anoxic events in the great basin, western united states, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, 20, pp.225-262. doi: 10.1016/S0920-5446(05)80009-3
Racki G; Wignall PB (2005) Chapter 10 late permian double-phased mass extinction and volcanism: an oceanographic perspective, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, 20, pp.263-297. doi: 10.1016/S0920-5446(05)80010-X
Wignall PB (2005) Chapter 1Introduction, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, 20, pp.1-3. doi: 10.1016/S0920-5446(05)80001-9
Wignall PB; Newton RJ; Little CTS (2005) The timing of paleoenvironmental change and cause-and-effect relationships during the early Jurassic mass extinction in Europe, AM J SCI, 305, pp.1014-1032.
Sephton MA; Looy CV; Brinkhuis H; Wignall PB; de Leeuw JW; Visscher H (2005) Catastrophic soil erosion during the end-Permian biotic crisis, GEOLOGY, 33, pp.941-944. doi: 10.1130/G2178.1
Kerr AC; England RW; Wignall PB (2005) Mantle plumes: physical processes, chemical signatures, biological effects, LITHOS, 79, pp.VII-X. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2004.09.003
Wignall PB; Newton R; Brookfield ME (2005) Pyrite framboid evidence for oxygen-poor deposition during the Permian-Triassic crisis in Kashmir, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 216, pp.183-188. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.10.009
Wignall PB (2005) The link between large igneous provinces and mass extinctions, Elements, 1, pp.293-297.
Wignall PB (2005) Volcanism and mass extinctions, In: Marti J; Ernst G (Ed) Volcanoes and the environment, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, pp.207-226.
Wignall PB (2005) The End Triassic Mass Extinction, Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd: Chichester.
Wignall PB (2005) UNDERSTANDING LATE DEVONIAN AND PERMIAN-TRIASSIC BIOTIC AND CLIMATIC EVENTS Towards an Integrated Approach Introduction, UNDERSTANDING LATE DEVONIAN AND PERMIAN-TRIASSIC BIOTIC AND CLIMATIC EVENTS: TOWARDS AN INTEGRATED APPROACH, 20, pp.1-3.
Racki G; Wignall PB (2005) Late Permian double-phased mass extinction and volcanism: an oceanographic approach, In: Morrow; J; Over; J; Wignall; B P (Ed) Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic biotic and climatic events: towards an integrated approach, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, Elsevier, pp.263-297.
Wignall PB; Woods A; Bottjer D (2005) Comment on "Permian-Triassic boundary interval in the Abadeh section of Iran with implications for mass extinction: Part 1. Sedimentology" by E. Heydari, J. Hassanzadeh, W.J. Wade and A.M. Ghazi, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 217, pp.315-317. doi: 10.1016/j.palaeo.2004.11.022
Morrow J; Over J; Wignall PB (2005) Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic biotic and climatic events: towards an integrated approach, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, Elsevier, pp.344p.
Bond DPG; Wignall PB (2005) Evidence for Late Devonian (Kellwasser) anoxic events in the Great Basin, western United States, In: Morrow; J; Over; J; Wignall; B P (Ed) Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic biotic and climatic events: towards an integrated approach, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, Elsevier, pp.225-261.
Wignall PB (2005) Introduction, In: Morrow; J; Over; J; Wignall; B P (Ed) Understanding Late Devonian and Permian-Triassic biotic and climatic events: towards an integrated approach, Developments in Palaeontology and Stratigraphy, Elsevier, pp.1-3.
Wignall PB; Best JL (2004) Sedimentology and kinematics of a large, retrogressive growth-fault system in Upper Carboniferous deltaic sediments, western Ireland, SEDIMENTOLOGY, 51, pp.1343-1358. doi: 10.1111/j.1365-3091.2004.00673.x
Wignall PB; Thomas B; willink R; watling J (2004) Is Bedout an impact crater?, Science, 306, pp.pp.609. doi: 10.1126/science.306.5696.609d
Bond D; Wignall PB; Racki G (2004) Extent and duration of marine anoxia during the Frasnian-Famennian (Late Devonian) mass extinction in Poland, Germany, Austria and France, GEOL MAG, 141, pp.173-193. doi: 10.1017/S0016756804008866
Wignall PB; Newton R (2004) Comment - Contrasting deepwater records from the Upper Permian and Lower Triassic of South Tibet and British Columbia: Evidence for a diachronous mass extinction (Wignall and Newton, 2003) - Reply, PALAIOS, 19, pp.102-104.
Newton RJ; Pevitt EL; Wignall PB; Bottrell SH (2004) Large shifts in the isotopic composition of seawater sulphate across the Permo-Triassic boundary in northern Italy, EARTH PLANET SC LETT, 218, pp.331-345. doi: 10.1016/S0012-821X(03)00676-9
Racki G; Piechota A; Bond D; Wignall PB (2004) Geochemical and ecological aspects of lower Frasnian pyrite-ammonoid level at Kostomloty (Holy Cross Mountains, Poland), GEOL Q, 48, pp.267-282.
Wignall PB; Newton RJ (2004) Reply to comment by Retallack: Contrasting Deep-water Records from the Upper Permian and Lower Triassic of South Tibet and British Columbia: Evidence for a Diachronous Mass Extinction, Palaios, 19, pp.102-104.
Wignall PB (2004) Anoxic environments, In: Selley; C R; Cocks; M LR; Plimer; R I (Ed) Encyclopedia of Geology, Elsevier, pp.495-501.
Wignall PB (2004) Biotic recovery after mass extinctions, McGraw-Hill 2004 yearbook of science and technology, McGraw-Hill Professional, New York.
Hallam A; Wignall PB (2004) Discussion on sea-level change and facies development across potential Triassic-Jurassic boundary horizons, SW Britain, Journal of the Geological Society, 161, pp.1053-1056.
Wignall PB (2004) Permian, In: Selley; C R; Cocks; M LR; Plimer; R I (Ed) Encyclopedia of Geology, Elsevier, pp.214-218.
Wignall PB (2004) Recent developments: Environmental and climatic impact of large igneous provinces, .
Wignall PB (2004) Causes of mass extinctions, In: Taylor PD (Ed) Extinctions in the history of life, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, pp.119-150.
Wignall PB (2004) Extinction: End-Triassic mass extinction, Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, Macmillian Publishers Ltd, Nature Publishing Group.
Wan XQ; Wignall PB; Zhao WJ (2003) The Cenomanian-Turonian extinction and oceanic anoxic event: evidence from southern Tibet, PALAEOGEOGR PALAEOCL, 199, pp.283-298. doi: 10.1016/S0031-0182(03)00543-1
Wignall PB; Newton R (2003) Contrasting deep-water records from the Upper Permian and Lower Triassic of South Tibet and British Columbia: Evidence for a diachronous mass extinction, PALAIOS, 18, pp.153-167.
Wignall PB; Zonneveld JP; Sephton MA (2003) Carbon and nitrogen isotope disturbances and an end-Norian (Late Triassic) extinction event: Reply, Geology, 31, . doi: 10.1130/0091-7613-31.1.e25
Wignall PB (2003) The end-Permian mass extinction, Mercian Geologist, 15, pp.pp.251.
Sephton MA; Amor K; Franchi IA; Wignall PB; Newton R; Zonneveld JP (2002) Carbon and nitrogen isotope disturbances and an end-Norian (Late Triassic) extinction event, GEOLOGY, 30, pp.1119-1122.
Wignall PB; Twitchett RJ (2002) Permian-Triassic sedimentology of Jameson Land, East Greenland: Incised submarine channels in an anoxic basin, Journal of the Geological Society, 159, pp.691-703. doi: 10.1144/0016-764900-120
Wignall PB; Twitchett RJ (2002) Permian-Triassic sedimentology of Jameson Land, East Greenland: incised submarine channels in an anoxic basin, J GEOL SOC LONDON, 159, pp.691-703.
Wignall PB; Best JL (2002) Reply to comment on The Western Irish Namurian Basin reassessed: by O.J. Martinsen and J.D. Collinson, Basin Research, 14, pp.531-542.
Wignall PB (2002) Review of Yin, H.F., Dickins, J.M., Shi, G.R. and Tong, J. 2000. Permian-Triassic evolution of Tethys and western Circum-Pacific, Elsevier, Earth Science Reviews, 57, pp.341-342.
Wignall PB; Twitchett RJ (2002) Extent, duration, and nature of the Permian-Triassic superanoxic event, In: Koeberl C; MacLeod KG (Ed) pp.395-413.
Wignall PB; Newton R (2001) Black shales on the basin margin: a model based on examples from the Upper Jurassic of the Boulonnais, northern France, SEDIMENT GEOL, 144, pp.335-356.
Fisher QJ; Wignall PB (2001) Palaeoenvironmental controls on the uranium distribution in an Upper Carboniferous black shale (Gastrioceras listeri Marine Band) and associated strata; England, CHEM GEOL, 175, pp.605-621.
Twitchett RJ; Looy CV; Morante R; Visscher H; Wignall PB (2001) Rapid and synchronous collapse of marine and terrestrial ecosystems during the end-Permian biotic crisis, GEOLOGY, 29, pp.351-354.
Twitchett RJ; Looy CV; Morante R; Visscher H; Wignall PB (2001) Rapid and synchronous collapse of marine and terrestrial ecosystems during the end-Permian biotic crisis, Geology, 29, pp.351-354. doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0351:RASCOM>2.0.CO;2
Raiswell R; Newton R; Wignall PB (2001) An indicator of water-column anoxia: Resolution of biofacies variations in the Kimmeridge Clay (Upper Jurassic, UK), J SEDIMENT RES, 71, pp.286-294.
Wignall PB (2001) Large igneous provinces and mass extinctions, EARTH-SCI REV, 53, pp.1-33.
Racki G; Wignall PB (2001) Eutrophication by decoupling of the marine biogeochemical cycles of C, N, adn P: a mechanism for the Late Devonian mass extinction: comment, Geology, 29, pp.pp.469. doi: 10.1130/0091-7613(2001)029<0469:EBDOTM>2.0.CO;2
Wignall PB (2001) Sedimentology of the Triassic-Jurassic boundary beds in Pinhay Bay (Devon, SW England), P GEOLOGIST ASSOC, 112, pp.349-360.
Wignall PB (2001) End Permian mass extinction, In: Briggs DEG; Crowther PR (Ed) Palaeobiology II, Oxford: Blackwell Scientific, pp.226-229.
Lai X; Wignall PB; Zhang K (2001) Palaeoecology of the conodonts Hindeodus and Clarkina during the Permian-Triassic transitional period, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 171, pp.63-72. doi: 10.1016/S0031-0182(01)00269-3
Hallam A; Wignall PB; Yin JR; Riding JB (2000) An investigation into possible facies changes across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in southern Tibet, SEDIMENT GEOL, 137, pp.101-106.
Hallam A; Wignall PB (2000) Facies change across the Triassic-Jurassic boundary in Nevada, USA, Journal of the Geological Society, 156, pp.453-456.
Wignall PB (2000) The end-Triassic mass extinction, Encyclopedia of Life Sciences, .
Wignall PB; Best JL (2000) The Western Irish Namurian Basin reassessed, Basin Research, 12, pp.59-78.
Wignall PB; Benton MJ (2000) Reply to discussion on Lazarus taxa and fossil abundance at times of biotic crisis, Journal of the Geological Society, 157, pp.pp.512.
Wignall PB (1999) Comment on: Evidence for abrupt latest Permian mass extinction of foraminifera: Results of tests for the Signor-Lipps effect, Geology, 27, pp.pp.383.
Wignall PB; Twitchett RJ (1999) Unusual intraclastic limestones in Lower Triassic carbonates and their bearing on the aftermath of the end-Permian mass extinction, Sedimentology, 46, pp.303-316.
Hallam A; Wignall PB (1999) Mass extinctions and sea-level changes, Earth Science Reviews, 48, pp.217-250.
Wignall PB; Benton MJ (1999) Lazarus taxa and fossil abundance at times of biotic crisis, Journal of the Geological Society, 156, pp.453-456.
Wignall PB (1998) Paleontological events: stratigraphic, ecological and evolutionary implications, Brett, C. and Baird, G. (Editors), Sedimentary Geology, 117, pp.245-246.
Wignall PB; Morante R; Newton R (1998) The Permo-Triassic transition in Spitsbergen: d12Corg chemostratigraphy, Fe and S geochemistry, facies, fauna and trace fossils, Geological Magazine, 135, pp.47-62.
Wignall PB; Newton R (1998) Pyrite framboid diameter as a measure of oxygen deficiency in ancient mudrocks, American Journal of Science, 298, pp.537-552.
Hallam A; Wignall PB (1997) Mass extinctions and their aftermath, Oxford: Oxford University Press, pp.320p.
Francis JE; Wignall PB (1997) Fieldwork safety at Leeds, Teaching Earth Sciences, 22, pp.pp.91.
Wignall PB; Maynard JR (1996) High resolution sequence stratigraphy in the early Marsdenian (Namurian, Carboniferous) of the central Pennines and adjacent areas, Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, 51, pp.127-140.
Twitchett RJ; Wignall PB (1996) Trace fossils and the aftermath of the Permo-Triassic mass extinction: evidence from northern Italy, Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology, 124, pp.137-151.
Wignall PB; Kozur H; Hallam A (1996) On the timing of palaeoenvironmental changes at the Permo-Triassic (P/Tr) boundary using conodont biostratigraphy, Historical Biology, 12, pp.39-62.
Wignall PB; Twitchett RJ (1996) Oceanic anoxia and the end Permian mass extinction, Science, 272, pp.1155-1158.
Waters CN; Maynard JR; Wignall PB (1996) New developments in the Late Carboniferous geology of the central Pennines, northern England: a review, Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society, 51, pp.81-86.
Wignall PB; Sutcliffe OE; Clemson J; Young E (1996) Unusual shoreface sedimentology in the Late Jurassic of the Boulonnais, northern France, Journal of Sedimentary Research. Section A: Sedimentary Petrology and Processes, 66, pp.577-586.
Wignall PB; Hallam A (1996) Facies change and the end-Permian mass extinction in S.E. Sichuan, China, Palaios, 11, pp.587-596.
Wignall PB; Bond DPG; Haas J; Wang W; Jiang H-S; Lai X-L; Altiner D; Vedrine S; Hips K; Zajzon N; Newton RJ (Submitted) The Capitanian (Middle Permian) mass extinction in western Tethys: a fossil, facies and d13C study from Hungary and Hydra Island (Greece), Palaios, .
Sun YD; Lai XL; Wignall PB; Widdowson M; Ali JR; Jiang HS; Wang W; Yan CB; Bond DPG (Published) Dating the onset and nature of the Middle Permian Emeishan large igneous province eruptions in SW China using conodont biostratigraphy and its bearing on mantle plume uplift models., Lithos, 119, pp.20-33. doi: 10.1016/j.lithos.2010.05.012
Bond DPG; Hilton J; Wignall PB; Ali JR; Stevens LG; Sun YD; Lai XL (Published) The Middle Permian (Capitanian) mass extinction on land and in the oceans, Earth Science Reviews, 102, pp.100-116. doi: 10.1016/j.earscirev.2010.07.004
An interview with Paul Wignall: How life on earth survived mass extinctions
September 29, 2015 by Debra Liese
Wignall jacketAs scientists ponder NASA’s recent announcement about the likelihood of water and the possibility of life, or extinct life on Mars, Paul Wignall, professor of palaeoenvironments at the University of Leeds, explores a calamitous period of environmental crisis in Earth’s own history. Wignall has been investigating mass extinctions for more than twenty-five years, a scientific quest that has taken him to dozens of countries around the world. Recently he took the time to answer some questions about his new book, The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions.
So why was this the worst of times and what died?
PW: For 80 million years, there was a whole series of mass extinctions; it was the most intense period of catastrophes the world has ever known. These extinctions included the end-Permian mass extinction, the worst disaster of all time. All life on earth was affected, from plankton in the oceans to forests on land. Coral reefs were repeatedly decimated, and land animals, dominated by primitive reptiles and amphibians, lost huge numbers of species.
What was responsible for all of these catastrophes?
PW: There is a giant smoking gun for every one of these mass extinctions: vast fields of lava called flood basalts. The problem is how to link their eruption to extinction. The key is understanding the role of volcanic gas emissions. Some of these gases, such as carbon dioxide, are very familiar to us today, and their climatic effects, especially global warming, seem to have been severe.
Why did these catastrophes stop happening?
PW: This is the $64,000 dollar question at the core of The Worst of Times. It seems to be because of a supercontinent. For 80 million years, all continents were united into a single entity called Pangea. This world was extremely bad at coping with rapid global warming because the usual feedbacks involved in removing gases from the atmosphere were not functioning very well. Since then, Pangea has broken up into the familiar multi-continent world of today, and flood basalt eruptions have not triggered any more mass extinctions.
What were the survivors like?
PW: Very tough and often very successful. It takes a lot to survive the world’s worst disasters, and many of the common plants and animals of today can trace their origin back to this time. For example, mollusks such as clams and snails were around before this worst of times, and their survival marks the start of their dominance in today’s oceans.
Are there any lessons we can apply to modern day environmental worries?
PW: Yes and no. Rapid global warming features in all of the mass extinctions of the past, which should obviously give us cause for concern. On the plus side, we no longer live in a supercontinent world. Flood basalt eruptions of the recent geological past have triggered short-lived phases of warming, but they have not tipped the world over the brink.
Paul Wignall at Otto Fiord at Cape St Andrew.
Paul Wignall conducting field research at Otto Fiord at Cape St Andrew.
Does this have anything to do with the dinosaurs?
PW: Sort of. Dinosaurs first appear towards the end of this series of calamities and to a great extent they owed their success to the elimination of their competitors, which allowed them to flourish and dominate the land for 140 million years. As we know, their reign was brought to an abrupt halt by a giant meteorite strike – a very different catastrophe to the earlier ones.
What would you say to those who want to know how you can claim knowledge of what happened so long ago?
PW: Geologists have a lot of ways to interpret past worlds. The clues lie in rocks, so mass extinction research first requires finding rocks of the right age. Then, once samples have been collected, analysis of fossils tells us the level where the extinctions happened. This level can then be analyzed to find out what the conditions were like. It’s like taking a sample of mud from the bottom of the ocean and then using it reconstruct environmental conditions. However, not everything gets “fossilized” in ocean sediments. For example, it is very hard to work out what past temperatures were like, and ocean acidity levels are even harder to determine. This leaves plenty of scope for debate, and The Worst of Times looks at some of these on-going scientific clashes.
The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions
Publishers Weekly. 262.33 (Aug. 17, 2015): p64.
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The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinctions
Paul B. Wignall. Princeton Univ., $27.95 (232p) ISBN 978-0-691-14209-8
Wignall, professor of paleo-environments at the University of Leeds, presents a sound examination of an 80-millionyear span, which began nearly 260 million years ago, that is considered by scientists to have been the most extreme extinction event in the Earth's history. He reveals that research into the event's causes, which resulted in "the loss of more than 90% of all species" on Earth, points to the impact of volcanism on the supercontinent Pangaea, on a scale that is orders of magnitude beyond what human-kind has experienced. He follows the pattern through the end-Permian and end-Triassic mass extinctions and four lesser crises, in each case assessing multiple theories and lines of evidence about the causes of the events. Wignall points to severe warming episodes as factors in these cataclysms, but he avoids drawing too strong a connection between these episodes and climate change today. Wignall critiques hypotheses that don't support his own concept, but he also freely acknowledges instances when his own case is not fully proven. In sharing this story of the scientific process, he also gives credit to colleagues pursuing related research. Readers will inevitably encounter difficult terminology, but Wignall explains the relevant concepts to laypersons, making for a great example of scientific sleuthing. Illus. (Oct.)
Wignall, Paul B.: The worst of times: how life on Earth survived eighty million years of extinctions
B.E. Fleury
CHOICE: Current Reviews for Academic Libraries. 53.8 (Apr. 2016): p1194.
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Wignall, Paul B. The worst of times: how life on Earth survived eighty million years of extinctions. Princeton, 2015. 199p bibl index afp ISBN 9780691142098 cloth, $27.95; ISBN 9781400874248 ebook, contact publisher for price
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What killed the dinosaurs? Mounting evidence points to an asteroid about ten kilometers across, which slammed into the ocean off the Yucatan coast. Several other mass extinctions coincided with an impact event, but not all can be blamed on cosmic collisions. Among the alternate hypotheses are nearby supernovae, climate change, and massive volcanism. The Permian mass extinction, called the "Great Dying," nearly extinguished all life on Earth. Volcanic eruptions lasted a million years, spewing two to three million cubic kilometers of lava over Siberia and leaving layers of lava up to 3,000 meters thick. Volcanic eruptions are also a feature of impact events, but are they cause or effect? The death of the dinosaurs was accompanied by massive eruptions that covered a substantial chunk of India. The Worst of Times makes a compelling case for volcanism as a principal cause of mass extinctions, especially in the Permian and Triassic. Wignall (Univ. of Leeds, UK) argues that such widespread volcanic activity was particularly deadly due to the fusion of separate continents into the supercontinent of Pangea. The author concludes that the web of life has become increasingly resilient in the face of repeated mass destruction. Well written and persuasive, the book is valuable for all academic libraries. Summing Up: *** Highly recommended. Lower-division undergraduates through researchers/ faculty.--B. E. Fleury, Tulane University
The Worst of Times
Paul B. Wignall's book on how Earth has withstood waves of cataclysmic extinction make the fall of dinosaurs seem like last week's news, writes Scott McLemee.
By Scott McLemee
October 14, 2015
1 COMMENT
Every so often in a Victorian novel or the biography of someone of that era, you will come across a mention of “Lyell on geology” that often implies something momentous and perhaps a bit mind-boggling for the person grappling with it. Or it might be to someone so old-fashioned as to have been unaffected by the challenge. It evinces an odd image of ladies and gentlemen in their drawing rooms, wearing heavily starched clothing and excited, or distressed, by something involving rocks.
At issue was the three-volume Principles of Geology by Charles Lyell -- an international best-seller published in the early 1830s and still much discussed upon the author’s death in 1875. While hardly the first natural philosopher to challenge the literal truth of the Book of Genesis, Lyell made the most far-reaching and cogent argument that the earth’s features (mountains, gorges, the course of rivers, etc.) could be explained by slow changes over extremely long periods of time. Among Lyell’s readers, no surprise, was the young Charles Darwin, who studied the Principles while voyaging on the Beagle.
One way to put it is that Lyell sank Noah’s Ark. But the damage to orthodox religious belief was only part of the Principles’ impact. There was also the strain of imagining the scale of time implied by “Lyell on geology” -- a phrase we should probably read as implying more than the replacement of “catastrophism” by “uniformitarianism” (terms introduced as the accepted explanation for environmental change). For it was also the moment when human history shrank to an almost inconceivably tiny aspect of natural history, like a speck of dirt atop a mountain.
Reading Paul B. Wignall’s The Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinction, from Princeton University Press, can induce something of that perturbed feeling. It did in me, anyway, as I tried every so often to picture a timeline of the catastrophic events that Wignall and his colleagues have reconstructed. (The author is a professor of paleoenvironments at the University of Leeds.)
The geologically unsophisticated layperson will probably anticipate new ideas or evidence about what killed the dinosaurs. But that’s an index of how limited an impact Lyell has had. We still imagine change on too constricted a scale. The rise and fall of Jurassic wildlife are, for Wignall, something like last week’s news might seem to an ancient historian: interesting enough, sure, but the author would really prefer to stay focused on the past and not get sidetracked chattering about recent trends.
The catastrophic events covered in The Worst of Times affected life on Pangaea, the vast landmass that took shape 300 million years ago and disintegrated into pieces that drifted across the globe to form the continents we have now.
Two mass extinctions -- defined as “geologically brief intervals when numerous species go extinct in a broad range of habitats, from the ocean floor to forests, and all latitudes, from the Equator to the poles” -- had already taken place in very distant pre-Pangaean times, but the formation of the super-continent seems to have accelerated the pace of disaster: in the period between 260 and 180 million years ago, two of Earth’s five known mass extinction events took place, along with four other extinction episodes of smaller scale or impact.
That leaves one mass extinction unaccounted for: the crisis following the impact of a giant meteor hitting what is now the Yucatan Peninsula, 65 million years ago, ending the reign of the dinosaurs, among other species. That was a good 100 million years after Pangaea’s fragmentation got well underway, and the continents that existed during the fifth mass extinction event are recognizable in their current form, if not location, from one of the maps on the U.S. Geological Survey's website.
The very idea of Pangaea has always fascinated me (insert nerd emoji here) yet the evidence suggests it was a difficult place for evolution to happen. In fact, that is an understatement: Wignall’s reconstruction of the deep history suggests that Pangaea was not just the scene of disasters but also a major factor in their scale and frequency.
The issue was volcanoes, and not just the piddling sort of modern times that could wipe out a city or two. The biggest volcano of the last thousand years produced about 30 cubic kilometers of magma, while a given Pangaean volcano (one of an untold number) threw out millions of cubic kilometers. The eruptions filled the atmosphere with carbon dioxide while also setting off chain reactions that created hot, de-oxygenated, acidic oceans, killing off much marine life.
The fracturing of Pangaea did not mean a complete end to monster volcanoes and their sundry terrible side effects (including periods of climate change, up and down in temperature). But Wignall suggests that the supercontinent’s eventual dispersal into smaller landmasses created better conditions for evolution -- and even for simple survival.
“A huge continent has vast areas in the interior that are too far away from the sea to receive much rain,” he writes. “In contrast, smaller, more fragmented continents receive precipitation over a greater area …. Continental runoff also supplies nutrients to the oceans, which stimulate plankton growth that removes more carbon dioxide, which gets buried as organic carbon in marine sedimentary rocks.”
Which, in turn, makes for relatively more moderate short-term changes in climate. One benefit of studying volcanic activity of the Pangaean era is that it created “effects that may be akin to modern anthropogenic activity, such as the emission of huge amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.” The author avoids speculating on the more dire potential implications, but indicates that having dispersed continents now is at least some advantage.
As a side note, let me mention the surprise at seeing a geologist use the word “catastrophism” in a neutral way. Evidently uniformitarianism is no longer quite the bedrock principle that it seemed in the wake of “Lyell on geology” -- a development that believers in Noah’s Ark seem to find encouraging. But catastrophism as Wignall and his colleagues understand it means recognizing that the unimaginably vast stretches of time in which the earth changes slowly have been punctuated, on occasion, by cataclysmic events lasting a few hundred thousand years. On the grand scale, that counts as sudden change. But 40 days and 40 nights it isn’t.
Read more byScott McLemee
Review: The Worst of Times
August 20, 2015 · 2 Comments
I received this book for free from NetGalley in exchange for an honest review. This does not affect my opinion of the book or the content of my review.
Review: The Worst of TimesThe Worst of Times: How Life on Earth Survived Eighty Million Years of Extinction by Paul B. Wignall
Published by Princeton University Press on September 29th 2015
Genres: Dinosaurs & Prehistoric Creatures, Life Sciences, Nature, Non-fiction, Science
Pages: 240
Format: eARC
Source: NetGalley
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Two hundred and sixty million years ago, life on Earth suffered wave after wave of cataclysmic extinctions, with the worst—the end-Permian extinction—wiping out nearly every species on the planet. The Worst of Times delves into the mystery behind these extinctions and sheds light on the fateful role the primeval supercontinent, known as Pangea, may have played in causing these global catastrophes.Drawing on the latest discoveries as well as his own firsthand experiences conducting field expeditions to remote corners of the world, Paul Wignall reveals what scientists are only now beginning to understand about the most prolonged and calamitous period of environmental crisis in Earth’s history. He describes how a series of unprecedented extinction events swept across the planet in a span of eighty million years, rapidly killing marine and terrestrial life on a scale more devastating than the dinosaur extinctions that would come later. Wignall shows how these extinctions—some of which have only recently been discovered—all coincided with gigantic volcanic eruptions of basalt lavas that occurred when the world’s landmasses were united into a single vast expanse.Unraveling one of the great enigmas of ancient Earth, The Worst of Times also explains how the splitting apart of Pangea into the continents we know today ushered in a new age of vibrant and more resilient life on our planet.
The Worth of Times is a book that looks to be fairly straightforward on the surface, but is actually semi-complex.
Wignall’s novel describes how and why cataclysms caused mass extinctions in pre-historic time. He explains how scientists use technology and ancient clues to solve the riddles surrounding mass extinctions. He mainly describes the role of volcanic activities in mass extinction events. The novel attempts to foster further understanding as to why LIPs (large igneous provinces), which can develop into volcanic provinces, were so detrimental to life before Pangaea broke into smaller land masses.
The Worst of Times is not a book for the uninitiated. Although the description looks to be written for the masses, the content often became bogged down in detail and scientific jargon. I found myself looking up certain Latin named species to understand just what creature Wignall was describing. I also came across words I’d never seen before due to the highly technical nature of the text. Fortunately, Wignall rises above this and attempts to fill the reader in on some of these details.
Prior to reading this title I was unaware of how completely uninformed I was about ancient geology, climate studies and their role in modern science. I had always assumed that studies of extinction level events and climatic shifts were interesting but not at all relevant to today’s world. The Worst of Times completely changed that perception by causing me to understand the interlinked relationship between studying ancient climatic change and developing a deeper understanding of today’s planetary climate system.
Wignall’s attempt to alert readers to our limited understanding of the global climate system comes across as part textbook and part climate debate.
I have read very few articles that convey a positive prognosis for a post global warming world and it is with this background that I found this novel to be refreshing. The author provides plenty of evidence affirming the resiliency of life and the adaptability of Earth’s climatic system which is a welcome change to the mass published panic enabling literature. If Wingall’s research is correct, it could mean we do not understand the long-term effect of global warming or the strength of Earth’s self-correcting abilities. The novel was not enough to change my perception of global warming, but it did offer some interesting food for thought.
I found this title to be dense, often quite difficult to wade through but filled with wisdom. I would not suggest this book if you’re looking for a light, fun read with very simple concepts. I still do not understand half of what I read. I can only say that what looked like a novel akin to a Natural Geographic documentary actually became an academic study of mass extinction agents and climate change effects.
This book would appeal to readers who enjoy science, scientific research, extinction events, ancient history and extremely educational novels. I would recommend readers be prepared for a academic feeling novel as this is not part of the “popular science” trend.
About Paul B. Wignall
Professor Paul Wignall lectures in palaeontology and sedimentology. His principal research goal is to understand the origins of mass extinction events. He has been investigating the end-Permian mass extinction since the late 1980s and in recent years has broadened his research topics to include the late Devonian (Frasnian/Famennian), end-Triassic and Early Jurassic (Toarcian) mass extinction events. His multidisciplinary approach to the origins of these crises in Earth’s history includes the study of their fossil, sequence stratigraphic and their stable isotope records. Evidence for marine anoxia is often associated with all of these extinction events and this nicely overlaps with Professor Wignall’s other main research interest: the characterisation of black shale depositional environments. As many of the key extinction boundary sections are not found in West Yorkshire, Professor Wignall has been forced to travel to often remote parts of the globe: his favourite field areas to date have been Nevada and central Poland. He has published over 130 research articles and 2 books.
REVIEW 7 October 2015
How fish dodged extinction’s bullet
The Worst of Times explores the baffling story of animals that breezed through the worst climate catastrophe Earth has ever known
How fish dodged extinction's bullet
By Matthew Cobb
Catastrophic eruptions cleared the way for flowers, dinosaurs and us (Image: STEVE AND DONNA O’MEARA/NGS)
LIFE on Earth was nearly extinguished 251 million years ago. Some 96 per cent of marine species went extinct. The world’s forests disappeared, and for about a million years no plant grew higher than a half a metre. It took 100 million years for biodiversity to return to pre-extinction levels. The global ecosystem was shattered and the history of our planet took an abrupt turn, laying the basis for the rise of dinosaurs, mammals and flowering plants.
How fish dodged extinction's bullet
The cause of this catastrophe was a series of immense volcanic eruptions that produced the vast stepped layers of igneous rock known as the Siberian traps (the word “trap” comes from the Dutch for “stair”). This period of hellish volcanic activity spewed hundreds of thousands of gigatonnes of carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, and covered huge areas of land with thousands of cubic kilometres of lava.
In the aptly titled The Worst of Times, Paul Wignall, professor of palaeoenvironments at the University of Leeds, explores the cataclysm that precipitated the end-Permian mass extinction. His analysis covers a staggering 80 million years, from the Triassic to the beginning of the Jurassic. He believes that a series of lesser extinction events in that period had similar volcanic causes.
The book’s central claim – unaccountably left until the closing pages – is that the ecological effects of the eruptions were exacerbated because, during this period, the world’s entire land mass had fused into a single supercontinent called Pangaea. This had consequences for the environment – for example, a single continent would have led to less rainfall per unit area, which may have meant that some parts were uninhabitable.
In a relaxed style, Wignall describes the significance of recent measurements and discoveries, and introduces us to framboids, rudists, crurotarsans, gorgonopsians and many other obscure scientific terms. There are no illustrations here, so have Google to hand as you read.
Wignall’s excellent introduction to the latest thinking about this key period in Earth’s history could profitably be read alongside Michael Benton’s end-Permian-focused When Life Nearly Died, recently released in a new edition.
The Worst of Times reveals how little we understand about past ecologies. It is baffling that some taxa, including two major animal groups – fish and insects – breezed through the catastrophe without too much damage.
The profound atmospheric and temperature changes at this time would have led to acidified and oxygen-depleted seas – yet fish, at the top of the food web, survived. Many plants died – but plant-eating and detritus-feeding insects were largely unaffected.
There is something amiss here: either we do not have an accurate picture of the extinction process, or we do not understand Permian-Triassic ecology. Or both.
Wignall’s assessment of the environmental consequences of Pangaea and its millions of years of massive volcanic eruptions is uncontroversial. But there are other possibilities he doesn’t explore.
When populations of a species are geographically separated, there is eventually an increase in diversity. Perhaps terrestrial life on Pangaea was not particularly diverse, and this made life more vulnerable to the effects of large-scale volcanism. Similar effects may have been felt in the sea. While Pangaea existed, there would, after all, have been relatively few coastline habitats.
Wignall’s book is enthralling. But in the end, extinction events are measured through their effects on ecology, not geology. To understand Earth’s history – and its future – we must learn far more about how life’s web works.
The Worst of Times: How life on Earth survived eighty million years of extinctions
Paul B. Wignall
Princeton University Press
This article appeared in print under the headline “Dodging extinction’s bullet”