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Science 15 May 1998:
Vol. 280. no. 5366, pp. 1039 - 1045
DOI: 10.1126/science.280.5366.1039
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Research Articles

U/Pb Zircon Geochronology and Tempo of the End-Permian Mass Extinction

S. A. Bowring, * D. H. Erwin, Y. G. Jin, M. W. Martin, K. Davidek, W. Wang

The mass extinction at the end of the Permian was the most profound in the history of life. Fundamental to understanding its cause is determining the tempo and duration of the extinction. Uranium/lead zircon data from Late Permian and Early Triassic rocks from south China place the Permian-Triassic boundary at 251.4 ± 0.3 million years ago. Biostratigraphic controls from strata intercalated with ash beds below the boundary indicate that the Changhsingian pulse of the end-Permian extinction, corresponding to the disappearance of about 85 percent of marine species, lasted less than 1 million years. At Meishan, a negative excursion in delta 13C at the boundary had a duration of 165,000 years or less, suggesting a catastrophic addition of light carbon.

S. A. Bowring, M. W. Martin, and K. Davidek are in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, MA 02319, USA. D. H. Erwin is in the Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, Washington, DC 20560, USA. Y. G. Jin and W. Wang are at the Laboratory of Paleobiology and Stratigraphy, Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology, Academia Sinica, Nanjing, 210008, People's Republic of China.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)