Science. 2000 Sep 8;289(5485):1666b-7b. doi: 10.1126/science.289.5485.1666b.
Two hundred and fifty million years ago, at the end of the Permian period and the opening of the Triassic, 85% of the species in the sea vanished in a geologic moment of less than half a million years. Now from South Africa comes evidence that the Permian-Triassic extinction of land plants was equally brutal and swift. In a paper on page 1740 of this issue of Science, researchers report that rocks that started as sediments laid down in South Africa's Karoo Basin 250 million years ago tell of an abrupt switch in style of sedimentation, as if the land had been permanently stripped of the rooted plants that held it in place. But in the absence of any trace of an impact, researchers are groping for an equally far-reaching explanation.
两亿五千万年前，在二叠纪末期和三叠纪初期，海洋中 85%的物种在不到五十万年的地质瞬间中消失了。现在，来自南非的证据表明，陆地植物的二叠纪-三叠纪灭绝同样残酷和迅速。在本期《科学》杂志第 1740 页的一篇论文中，研究人员报告称，2.5 亿年前在南非卡鲁盆地沉积形成的岩石讲述了一个突然的沉积方式转变，就好像陆地被永久性地剥夺了固定它的有根植物。但是，由于没有任何撞击的痕迹，研究人员正在摸索一个同样深远的解释。
