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Scientists have discovered that Earth’s worst mass extinction was caused by climate change. It was called the ‘Great Dying.’

The "Great Dying," Earth's worst mass extinction, was caused by global warming about 252 million years ago, according to a new study.

In this January 2016 photo, dead common murres lie washed up on a rocky beach in Whittier, Alaska. A year after tens of thousands of common murres, an abundant North Pacific seabird, starved and washed ashore on beaches from California to Alaska, researchers pinned the cause to unusually warm ocean temperatures that affected the tiny fish they eat.
  • microbes
  • the oceans
  • climate change

About 252 million years ago, the vast majority of species on Earth were killed off in the "Great Dying," the worst mass extinction in our planet's history.

Up to 96% of all marine species and 70% of land animals were killed off during this event, which was even more deadly than the extinction of dinosaurs.

One study claims the Great Dying, also known as the Permian extinction, occurred after a microbe spewed large amounts of methane

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By 2100, Earth could see temperature levels as high as 3 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels by 2100. Study co-author Curtis Deutsch, a professor at the University of Washington, told The Atlantic that from there, 10 degrees wouldn't be "that far off the charts."

"This study shows that we’re on that same road toward extinction, and the question is how far down it we go," lead author

  • Read more about mass extinctions:
  • Earth Is On The Cusp Of A Sixth Mass Extinction
  • Life on Earth will look dramatically different by mid-century
  • Forget being 'on the edge' — Earth is entering a sixth mass extinction

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