Before the Mass Extinction and Massive Change (IMAGE)
Caption
In the late Permian about 253 million years ago -- just before the largest mass extinction ever -- the ocean floor was profoundly different than it is today. Complex marine ecosystems and simple marine ecosystems were equally common. This photograph of a Field Museum diorama of the ocean floor before the end-Permian mass extinction shows several simple, fixed organisms, including brachiopods, corrals and large yellow sponges (on the right). New research indicates that after the mass extinction that marks the divide between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic, complex ecosystems largely displaced these simple ones.
Credit
Photograph of Field Museum diorama by Ron Testa, courtesy of the Field Museum
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