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Over what sort of time frame do these mass extinctions occur?
by Tycho 5y ago
Over what sort of time frame do these mass extinctions occur?
- adrianN 5y agoWell, we're right in the middle of one. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Holocene_extinction It's pretty hard to say how long they usually take because the fossil record from millions of years ago is difficult to date with good accuracy. For example, I don't think we can say with good confidence whether the asteroid that hit us 66 million years ago killed a large fraction of all living creatures within a year, or whether it took thousands of years or longer.
- selimthegrim 5y agoThere would be way more species going extinct if this was a true mass extinction, compare to the end-Permian
- adrianN 5y agoThe sources in the Wikipedia article seem to disagree with you on that. Perhaps you want to add your sources to the article and reword it with less strong language.
- selimthegrim 5y agoThe Ends of the World by Peter Brannen
- ipaddr 5y agoIn the past millions of years.