‘The Great Dying’ Was Our Worst Extinction Ever, And It Could Happen Again

What exactly caused the greatest extinction on earth? New research may finally hold the answer to this long time mystery.

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Increased UV from ozone depletion sterilizes trees
http://news.berkeley.edu/2018/02/07/increased-uv-from-ozone-depletion-sterilizes-trees/
“Pine trees become temporarily sterile when exposed to ultraviolet radiation as intense as some scientists believe the Earth experienced 252 million years ago during the planet’s largest mass extinction, lending support to the theory that ozone depletion contributed to the crisis.”

Thinning Ozone Layer May Have Driven Earth's Largest Mass Extinction 252 Million Years Ago
https://phys.org/news/2018-02-thinning-ozone-layer-driven-earth.html#jCp
“Pine trees become temporarily sterile when exposed to ultraviolet radiation as intense as some scientists believe the Earth experienced 252 million years ago during the planet's largest mass extinction, lending support to the theory that ozone depletion contributed to the crisis.”

How Carbon-14 Dating Works
https://science.howstuffworks.com/environmental/earth/geology/carbon-141.htm
“Carbon-14 dating is a way of determining the age of certain archeological artifacts of a biological origin up to about 50,000 years old. It is used in dating things such as bone, cloth, wood and plant fibers that were created in the relatively recent past by human activities.”

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This episode of Seeker was hosted by Trace Dominguez.
Written by: Megan Bates