Demise of the Permian- Triassic Period Essay examples -- Exploratory E

Demise of the Permian- Triassic Period It is well known that there was a gage extinction killing the dinosaurs. However 185 million years before their demise, almost all life on earth was destroyed.11 There has long been theories that meteorites are the cause the of the mass extinctions and professor Asish Basu believes he may have found clues that point to space as the cause of the extinction in the Permian- Triassic period.22 The Triassic period is during a time when the earth was divided in a giant land mass pangea, and water. Here there was no separation of continents. The Triassic is when the dinosaurs first started to appear, exactly long before the nonorious Tyrannosaurus Rex dominated the terrain. At this time the dinosaurs were just a small part of the many animals that wandered the earth and were by no means, the large dominant, creatures that come to ones mind today. However the marker of this period is an extinction of the animals in the Permian peri od. The Permian period is known for the abundance of flora and the major changes in decorate including the formation of the Appalachian Mountains.33 Most notably is the giant fern glossopteris. However at the end of the period, during the time of the extinction, it too disappeared.44 Professor Basu and his colleagues found fragments of chondritic minerals with mineral compositions that do not occur on earth, in Antarictica. These minerals have very similar chemical composition to minerals found in Meishan China. Because such similar extra-terrestrial minerals have been observed in two geographically distant places, there is evidence that a meteor struck the earth and the dust that covered the land was significant complete to co... ... If it was a meteor it could give new insight to what kind of meteor it was and how it killed almost an entire planets living organisms. Either way, this evidence should not be taken lightly and is a crucial to the world of science. Notes11 Basu, Asish Petaev, Michail I. Poreda, Robert J. Jacobsen, Stein B. Becker, Luann, Science Chondritic Meteorite Fragments Associated with the Permian-Triassic Boundary in Antarctica, Vol 302, Issue 5649, 1388-1392 , 21 November 200322 Basu33 Encyclopedia. http//www.encyclopedia.com/html/ sectionalization/Permianp_HistoricalGeologyofthePeriod.asp44 Associate Press. CNN Ancient Meteorite Wiped Out Life Washington, Nov. 20, 200355 Basu, 66 Associated Press77 Basu, 88 Britt, Robert Roy, Science Controversial New Claim in Death-by-Meteor Case, 20 November 200399 Britt1010 Britt