Do you know what are the 5 great extinctions that have already had on our dear planet earth? If not, come check it out with me right now in this article, in addition to these great extinctions, I will cite the possible next mass extinction of the earth. Remembering that the ones I will mention here were responsible for the death of more than 90% of the life that existed at that time.
But will we really have an upcoming extinction of the earth? Everything that is born is destined to die, including our planet, sooner or later it will end and take whatever life it has. But before the Planet dies, everything indicates that humans will "kill themselves" and thus cause their own extinction. Be it through a nuclear confrontation between countries or the depletion of excessive natural resources for the road, such as water for example.
Without further ado, I will tell you below which were the 5 great mass extinctions that took almost all life on earth. However, I want to say that they are the five great registered extinctions, maybe there's another one that we still don't know about.
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Extinction of the Ordovician
This was an extinction that happened about 445 million years ago and took 60% to 70% of the life that existed here. We still don't know clearly the cause of this extinction, however, everything indicates that it was a short but intense glacial period. Life in this period was concentrated almost entirely in the seas. The oceans were all frozen for a short time, but enough to cause a mass extinction.
Devonian extinction
Once again we will talk about an extinction that caused the death of almost all marine life, which was the majority in this period. This extinction took place between 360 and 375 million years ago and its possible cause was the depletion of oxygen in the oceans. In this period 75% of life on planet earth were annihilated.
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Permian extinction
Of the 5 major earth extinctions that I will cite, this one was the most aggressive, as it wiped out approximately 95% of existing life in this period. The same happened 252 million years ago, its cause was a possible impact of an asteroid and enormous volcanic activity.
The animal species that survived the earth's first two great extinctions most likely did not escape this one. An incredible curiosity about this fact is that some scientists believe that this happened only 200 thousand years ago.
Triassic extinction
There is still no more plausible cause among scientists to believe what caused this extinction which is still a mystery. This extinction that happened about 200 million years ago, and eliminated large terrestrial species like the archosaurs, ancestors of dinosaurs.
From 70% to 80% Life was extinct. However, one of the possible causes could have been the massive eruptions of lava caused during the breakup of Pangea, the last supercontinent. Other scientists believe it was caused by the fall of an asteroid, but no corresponding crater has been identified so far.
Cretaceous extinction
To finish this list with the 5 great extinctions of the Earth, I will talk about the most recent one that happened and killed all the Dinosaurs. It happened about 66 million years ago and its possible cause was the fall of a huge asteroid.
Unlike the first extinctions, terrestrial animal species were the most affected, while marine species were more likely to survive. It is believed that about 75% of life on Earth went extinct in this period. So, when will Earth's next mass extinction happen?