ScienceDaily: Fossils & Ruins News

The Paleozoic era culminated 251.9 million years ago in the most severe mass extinction recorded in the geologic record. Known as the 'great dying,' this event saw the loss of up to 96% of all marine species and around 70% of terrestrial species, including plants and insects.

A new study uses fossil and archaeological archives to demonstrate that colonial era extinctions in Guadeloupe occurred on a much more massive scale than previously thought, with more than 50% of the islands' squamate species disappearing in the centuries after 1492.