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After the end-Permian extinction (the worst mass extinction in the Earth's history), life took several million years to recover. From Wikipedia: > Research in
by yongjik 7y ago
After the end-Permian extinction (the worst mass extinction in the Earth's history), life took several million years to recover. From Wikipedia:
> Research indicates that recovery did not begin until the start of the mid-Triassic, 4 to 6 million years after the extinction;[73] and some writers estimate that the recovery was not complete until 30 Ma after the P–Tr extinction, i.e. in the late Triassic.[8]
The current extinction might not be as severe, but "a few thousand years" sounds really optimistic.
- ncmncm 7y agoThe P-Tr extinction was overwhelmingly worse than we are capable of, even on our worst day. It drove every single obligate-shelled ocean species to extinction. The ones with shells that came after were descended from those that had lost their shells, and then evolved them again. If civilization collapses, the sudden pulse of reforestation and radical reduction in CO2 production will clear the excess in a few decades. Many shelled species will survive just by waiting it out; do you recall the 400-year-old clam that turned up recently? It is mostly the larval forms at risk.