Fossil magnetism helps prove mass extinction theory

University of Bristol ^ | May 4, 2009 | Unknown

[decimon]

Were major extinction events real biological catastrophes or were they merely the result of gaps in the fossil record? Research by a team of geologists from the Universities of Bristol, Plymouth, and Saratov State in Russia, has shed new light on a debate that has divided scientists of late and was recognised as far back as Darwin’s Origin of Species.

The team has uncovered evidence in the Russian Urals that demonstrates the presence of the world’s single most severe mass extinction event which took place at the end of the Permian and start of the Triassic ages, some 250 million years ago. The extinction event, thought to be the result of runaway global warming, wiped out between 80-95 per cent of the planet’s species.

This highly significant research disproves the currently accepted idea that in Russia this mass extinction event was not recorded and the apparent disappearance in species during this time was in fact due to a gap in the fossil record. Lead researcher, Dr Graeme Taylor of the University of Plymouth explains: “Leading authorities including the authors of the International Timescale suggested that ten million years worth of rock was missing in Russia and that the rocks present were thought to be ten million years older than they are. This would mean that the fossil disappearance in Russia would then pre-date that of everywhere else, seriously undermining the idea of a single mass extinction event.”

The scientists matched the magnetic record fossilised within the disputed Russian rocks with those from the rest of the globe, demonstrating that the Russian rocks do indeed record the run-up to the event and the Permian - Triassic period and therefore the fossil losses in these rocks are part of the mass extinction. Explaining the significance of the findings, Dr Taylor said: “There is in fact no Permian-Triassic gap. The record is complete and the mass extinction event is further strengthened as being a major turning point in the history of life on Earth and as the most catastrophic event to have, so far, affected our planet.”

The research was funded by the Natural Environmental Research Council, Royal Society and National Geographic and was recently published in the journal, Earth and Planetary Science Letters.

[SunkenCiv]

Meteor May Have Started Dinosaur Era
by Kenneth Chang
May 17, 2002

In the layer of rock corresponding to the extinction, the scientists found elevated amounts of the rare element iridium. A precious metal belonging to the platinum group of elements, iridium is more abundant in meteorites than in rocks on Earth. A similar spike of iridium in 65 million-year-old rocks gave rise in the 1970's to the theory that a meteor caused the demise of the dinosaurs... The levels are only about one-tenth as high as those found at the later extinction. That could mean that the meteor was smaller or contained less iridium... In the same rock layer, Dr. Olsen and his colleagues found a high concentration of fern spores -- considered an indicator of a major disruption in the environment. Because spores carried by the wind can travel long distances, ferns are often the first plants to return to a devastated landscape. The scientists found more evidence of rapid extinction in a database of 10,000 muddy footprints turned to rock in former lake basins from Virginia to Nova Scotia... Because the sediment piles up quickly in lake basins, the researchers were able to assign a date to each footprint, based on the layer of rock where it was found. They determined that the mix of animals walking across what is now the East Coast of North America changed suddenly about 200 million years ago. The tracks of several major reptile groups continue almost up to the layer of rock marking the end of the Triassic geologic period 202 million years ago, then vanish in younger layers from the Jurassic period...

[MrB]

Gen 7:11 & thereabouts - reset button hit for sure.

[SunkenCiv]