By examining hundreds of fossils, scientists have discovered a terrifying apocalypse that once spread death across Africa and Arabia during the late Eocene period of the Paleogene era.
According to Science Alert, this was the most recent mass extinction event on Earth, previously unrecorded. It occurred during a time when the global climate transitioned from swampy conditions to icy ones.
An unprecedented “apocalypse” swept through Earth’s “land of life” at the beginning of the late Eocene period of the Paleogene era – (Image: NEW SCIENTIST).
By gathering data from hundreds of fossils across five groups of mammals, a research team led by Dr. Dorien de Vries from the University of Salford (UK) recorded the disappearance of 63% of animals across Africa and Arabia during this mass extinction.
However, unlike other mass extinctions that have occurred on the planet, many species demonstrated remarkable resilience by reappearing in the fossil record long after the event, rather than disappearing entirely like the dinosaurs. This suggests that somehow, a small number of individuals survived, evolving significantly to adapt and repopulate.
Dr. Vries stated, “After several million years, these groups began to reappear in the fossil record, but with a new appearance.” Meanwhile, Dr. Steven Heritage from Stony Brook University and the Duke Lemur Center’s Natural History Museum (USA), a co-author, remarked: “It is clear that there was a major extinction event followed by a period of recovery.”
This “apocalypse” occurred about 30 million years ago, at the beginning of the Oligocene (late Eocene period of the Paleogene era), but it seems to have been brewing since the late Eocene. It can be said that the “transition” from the Eocene to the Oligocene brought about catastrophic extinction but also created a leap in evolution for Earth’s organisms.
The study was recently published in the scientific journal Communication Biology.
