What was The Great Dying?

The Great Dying (or the Permian-Triassic mass extinction) marked the end of the paleozoic era. The Great Dying killed almost 90% of life on Earth, and was the most deadly event to ever occur.

What Caused It?

The Great Dying was caused by volcanic activity. But, instead of big mountains spewing lava everywhere, giant mile-long cracks in the ground opened up, leaking lava and vomiting poisonous gases. LOTS of carbon dioxide came out, and superheated Earth. Some carbon was absorbed by the ocean, making it too acidic for shelled creatures to live.

What Happened?

Because the seas were too acidic, many fish and even trilobites, the most successful creatures of the seas, died. Because they died, predators had no food, causing them to die. On land, the heat caused wildfires, wiping out seed ferns, and herbivores along with them. Entire ecosystems collapsed within decades. Gorgonopsians and other predators died, and water holes dried up. The great Pangaean desert grew, and many large amphibians died. Even types of bacteria were scorched! Life itself was on the brink of death, and billions of years of evolution was wasted. The Permian-Triassic mass extinction was the only mass extinction to majorly harm bugs.

What Happened Afterwards?

Burrowing animals such as Diictodon survived. They likely dug until they found buried plants to eat. Eventually, these plucky pelycosaurs emerged, and colonized the surface. They gave rise to Lystrosaurus, the world's most successful animal to ever live. More than 95% of land vertebrates living in the early triassic were lystrosauruses. Meanwhile, tiny lizard-like dinosauromorphs were scurrying across the undergrowth. They had a specialized hip bone, allowing for them to be bipedal. Eventually, these gave rise to the dinosaurs. Before then, though, the fearsome predators of the time were early crocodilians, known as pseudosuchians. When dinosaur theropods such as Coelophysis emerged, they were not nearly as successful as pseudosuchians, though they looked very similar. Some say pseudosuchians tried to look like dinosaurs, but in reality, it was likely convergent evolution (when creatures that are not closely related develop similar attributes or body shape because it works, and creatures without these die off).

I don't know why I thought this was funny, but Helicoprion, a predator that survived the extinction, died out a couple million years later.

Could This Happen Again?

Yes. The main damage was caused by too much carbon dioxide, which poisoned the sea and baked the entire planet. This is what we are doing today. Our gas powered cars are releasing carbon dioxide into the atmosphere. Fracking, factories, and concrete production generate lots of pollution. The production of roads also makes lots of carbon dioxide. All of these are crucial to modern society, but will also kill our planet. Currently, we are already seeing effects of this. The polar ice caps are melting, which is causing the ocean to engulf coasts. The global average temperature is going up a few degrees each year, which may not seem like a lot, but will cause the planet to burn after several decades. It is important to learn about history so we don't make the same mistake again, but what about prehistory? We need to learn about what happened before we came to be, so we can try to prevent a mass extinction from recurring.