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Early Triassic post mass extinction refuge for plants and tetrapods in China (free pdf)
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Ben Creisler
Mar 12, 2025, 3:22:32 PM (6 days ago) Mar 12
to DinosaurMa...@googlegroups.com
Ben Creisler
Huiping Peng, Wan Yang, Mingli Wan, Jun Liu, and Feng Liu (2025)
Refugium amidst ruins: Unearthing the lost flora that escaped the end-Permian mass extinction
Science Advances 11(11): eads5614
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads5614
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads5614
Free pdf:
https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.ads5614
Searching for land refugia becomes imperative for human survival during the hypothetical sixth mass extinction. Studying past comparable crises can offer insights, but there is no fossil evidence of diverse megafloral ecosystems surviving the largest Phanerozoic biodiversity crisis. Here, we investigated palynomorphs, plant, and tetrapod fossils from the Permian-Triassic South Taodonggou Section in Xinjiang, China. Our fossil records, calibrated by a high-resolution age model, reveal the presence of vibrant regional gymnospermous forests and fern fields, while marine organisms experienced mass extinction. This refugial vegetation was crucial for nourishing the substantial influx of surviving animals, thereby establishing a diverse terrestrial ecosystem approximately 75,000 years after the mass extinction. Our findings contradict the widely held belief that restoring terrestrial ecosystem functional diversity to pre-extinction levels would take millions of years. Our research indicates that moderate hydrological fluctuations throughout the crisis sustained this refugium, likely making it one of the sources for the rapid radiation of terrestrial life in the early Mesozoic.
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Terrestrial 'life oasis' from end-Permian mass extinction period discovered in China
A new paper:
Free pdf:
Huiping Peng, Wan Yang, Mingli Wan, Jun Liu, and Feng Liu (2025)
Refugium amidst ruins: Unearthing the lost flora that escaped the end-Permian mass extinction
Science Advances 11(11): eads5614
DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads5614
https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.ads5614
Free pdf:
https://www.science.org/doi/epdf/10.1126/sciadv.ads5614
Searching for land refugia becomes imperative for human survival during the hypothetical sixth mass extinction. Studying past comparable crises can offer insights, but there is no fossil evidence of diverse megafloral ecosystems surviving the largest Phanerozoic biodiversity crisis. Here, we investigated palynomorphs, plant, and tetrapod fossils from the Permian-Triassic South Taodonggou Section in Xinjiang, China. Our fossil records, calibrated by a high-resolution age model, reveal the presence of vibrant regional gymnospermous forests and fern fields, while marine organisms experienced mass extinction. This refugial vegetation was crucial for nourishing the substantial influx of surviving animals, thereby establishing a diverse terrestrial ecosystem approximately 75,000 years after the mass extinction. Our findings contradict the widely held belief that restoring terrestrial ecosystem functional diversity to pre-extinction levels would take millions of years. Our research indicates that moderate hydrological fluctuations throughout the crisis sustained this refugium, likely making it one of the sources for the rapid radiation of terrestrial life in the early Mesozoic.
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Terrestrial 'life oasis' from end-Permian mass extinction period discovered in China
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