The end-Triassic mass extinction and its aftermath

talk given by Professor Paul Wignall, School of Earth and Environment, University of Leeds 

The end-Triassic marks one of the big 5 mass extinctions of the fossil record and is also probably one of the least understand. It has many things in common with the preceding mass extinction at the end of the Permian. Both are associated with the eruptions of vast flows of basalt lava and both occurred whilst the world’s continents were united into a supercontinent. The talk will focus on some of the latest discoveries and ideas regarding both the mass extinction event and its aftermath. Unlike some other crises, the recovery from the crisis was remarkably quick in a geological sense and it of course paved the way for dinosaur to dominate the planet for 135 million years.