is a bit different from others on this list because we actually know what caused it but what makes this extinction mysterious is that for decades scientists kind of overlooked it that's because this extinction happened just eight million years before the permian mass extinction an apocalyptic event around NUMBER_TOKEN million years ago that radically reshaped life on earth that mass extinction wiped out NUMBER_TOKEN percent of marine species and came dangerously close to wiping out all life on earth NUMBER_TOKEN million years is a blip by geologic time standards so the guadalupian extinction kind of butts up against this other one because of this scientists didn't even notice the guadalupen extinction for a long time there are usually five mass extinctions cited in earth's geologic history and while the permian is one of them the guadalupen isn't in NUMBER_TOKEN researchers looking at the fossil record in south africa's karu basin found some of the most significant evidence for the guadalupe mass extinction NUMBER_TOKEN to NUMBER_TOKEN percent of the land vertebrate species that they were looking at were wiped out since then further study has shown that NUMBER_TOKEN of marine species were wiped out during the guadalupe and extinction this number pales in comparison to the permian but the guadalupe and extinction still had a large impact on global biodiversity this is why some researchers suggest that the guadalupe and should be included in the big five mass extinction events making the big five the big six as for the cause it's thought to be volcanic activity when the emison traps in southwestern china erupted the impact was enough to change the chemistry of the ocean leading to widespread ocean acidification and lack of oxygen the guadalupe extinction shows how disruptive powerful volcanic events can be to life on earth and the fact that it went undetected for so long also shows that there are a lot of mysteries left in the geologic record it's often claimed that we are currently living through another mass extinction this one caused by humans and their effect on the environment understanding the factors that led to species going extinct in the past can help us predict how species might go extinct today who knows we might even learn to spot the warning signs to prevent extinctions from happening in the future thanks for watching this episode of scishow which was brought to you with the generous support of this month's president of science matthew brandt we seriously appreciate you and thank you for helping us bring everyone the year NUMBER_TOKEN in science if you'd like to support scishow on patreon and maybe run for the office yourself you can get started at URL_TOKEN scishow
START_SELFPROMO_TOKEN thanks for watching this episode of scishow which was brought to you with the generous support of this month's president of science matthew brandt we seriously appreciate you and thank you for helping us bring everyone the year NUMBER_TOKEN in science if you'd like to support scishow on patreon and maybe run for the office yourself you can get started at URL_TOKEN END_SELFPROMO_TOKEN