Don’t call it a comeback: ‘Life Before Dinosaurs’ presentation on mass extinction recovery, June 2
For immediate release ‐ May 28, 2022
Contact: Jon Pishney, 919.707.8083. Images available upon request
[RALEIGH] – The North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences presents, “Rewiring the Biosphere: Ecosystem Collapse and Recovery after the Permian Mass Extinction,” Thursday, June 2 at 7 p.m. The worst mass extinction of all time occurred at the end of the Permian Period, around 252 million years ago. During this extinction, around 80% of species went extinct, and the world that followed was nothing like that which came before, with new groups of organisms evolving to take over an empty world.
Join extinction expert Peter Roopnarine, Curator of Geology at the California Academy of Sciences, as he presents the how and why of the end-Permian event, how life was finally able to recover, and how we can further develop our understanding of Earth’s past ecosystems to better forecast our future in the face of global change.
Extinction has been happening for as long as there has been life on Earth. For the most part, only a handful of species are threatened with extinction at any given time, usually due to local environmental factors — rarely is life all over the world imperiled. However, several times in Earth history this has been the case, and these devastating events are known as “mass extinctions.” In addition to wiping out individual species, mass extinctions fundamentally restructure global ecosystems. Groups of organisms that were successful for millions of years could be gone in an instant, providing chances for new species to fill in the gaps.
This is the first of three presentations complementing the Museum’s current special exhibition, “Life Before Dinosaurs: The Permian Monsters,” which runs through September 4, 2022. “Life Before Dinosaurs” brings the deep-past back to life with vivid artwork, mounted skeletons, and full-size, animatronic life models of the animals that ruled the world millions of years before the age of dinosaurs, in a time known as the Permian Period. This presentation is recommended for ages 12 and older. Purchase tickets at https://bit.ly/rewiringthebiosphere.
Other presentations in this series — which is developed with media support from WUNC, North Carolina Public Radio — include:
July 21: “Pathologies of the Paleozoic” with Megan Whitney, Harvard University.
August 11: “We Ate Dinosaurs: Getting to Know our Synapsid Ancestors” with Christian Kammerer, NC Museum of Natural Sciences.
Tickets are $10/person. Add an exhibition ticket and receive $5 off admission to “Life Before Dinosaurs: The Permian Monsters.” The special exhibition will be open from 5 to 7 p.m., with the presentation starting at 7 p.m. Purchase tickets at naturalsciences.org.
For more information about our upcoming activities, conservation news and ground-breaking research, follow @NaturalSciences on Instagram, Twitter and Facebook. Join the conversation with #visitNCMNS.