This artist's concept shows a broken-up asteroid.
(NASA/JPL-Caltech)About sixty-six million years ago, nearly 70% of all species on land and in the seas, including the mighty dinosaurs, were wiped out from the face of the Earth. The cataclysmic event is said to have been triggered due to a massive asteroid colliding with the Earth during this period. This is one of the most famous examples of what a mass extinction looks like, even though there were at least four more known mass extinction events prior to it.
But now, a new study has shed light on a possible mass extinction cycle of land animals which occurs every 27.5 million years. The new research indicates that these land mass extinctions also coincide well with the disappearance of the ocean life population.
Studying the extinction pattern of the dinosaurs, palaeontologists had earlier noted that mass extinctions of marine life were not random, but occurred periodically, wiping out nearly 90% of the marine species in a roughly 26-million-year cycle.
Drawing from this statement, researchers examined the previous record of mass extinctions of land-living animals, including amphibians, reptiles, and mammals. After a thorough statistical analysis, the team concluded that the mass extinction of land animals coincided with the extinction of ocean life.
But, what could be the possible cause behind the periodic mass extinctions on land and in the seas? As per the study, this could happen due to the nature of our planet’s orbit through the galaxy. The study notes that the extinctions also align with the major asteroid impacts and volcanic eruption events.
The study states that periodic comet showers occur in the Solar System every 26 to 30 million years. This happens when the solar system passes through the crowded mid-plane of the Milky Way Galaxy about every 30 million years. Therefore, during this particular period, it is possible that the massive asteroids crash into the Earth and thus cause a large impact by killing off too many species on the planet.
"These new findings of coinciding, sudden mass extinctions on land and in the oceans, and of the common 26- to 27-million-year cycle, lend credence to the idea of periodic global catastrophic events as the triggers for the extinctions. In fact, three of the mass annihilations of species on land and in the sea are already known to have occurred at the same times as the three largest impacts of the last 260 million years, each capable of causing a global disaster and resulting mass extinctions," said Michael Rampino, a professor in New York University's Department of Biology and the study's lead author.
The massive asteroid collisions can result in creating catastrophic conditions like wildfires, tsunamis, acid rain, extreme pollution and ozone depletion. As per reports, it has been predicted that such large mass extinction could possibly occur in the next 20 million years from now.
The study was published in the journal Historical Biology last week and can be accessed here.
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