Anybody watch the programme on the Permian Extinction on Saturday evening (SBS).
For those that didn't, 95% of all life on earth was wiped out 250m years ago and it is only in the past few years the cause of which seems to have been established - massive volcanic eruptions throughout Siberia which heated the world's temperature 5C which i turn heated the oceans which then permitted the escape of methane gases which on reaction with the water heater the global temperature by a further 5C. This created and environement which wiped out just about all land and sea life.
Back in the eighteen hundreds (1834?) a smaller style volcanic eruption in Iceland caused a mini ice age for 12/18months by the ash/sulpher blocking out the sun and this kind of effect likely took place in the early part of the Permian extinction when the eruption of Siberia took place. The extinction period is reckoned to have lasted around 80,000 years and resulted in the end of the Permian Age.
Of the few animal species thet survived was a four legged creature (herbivore) that looked like a cross between a dinosaur and a hippo and is believed to be part of 'mans' ancestral chain. So much for Adam and Eve.
