5 Times Life on Earth Almost Ended

The asteroid that ended the dinosaurs is the most famous extinction in Earth's history, and it wasn't the worst. Here are all five mass extinctions, what caused each one, how scientists read them in the rocks, and whether you could have survived them. Plus two that aren't on the list, the pattern behind most of them, and whether we're in a sixth. Chapters 0:00 The asteroid wasn't the worst 0:39 What counts as a mass extinction 1:09 How we know: reading the rocks 1:27 Not on the list: the oxygen catastrophe 2:04 Not on the list: the first animal extinction 2:40 #1 End-Ordovician: the big chill 4:18 #2 Late Devonian: suffocating seas 6:05 #3 End-Permian: the Great Dying 8:16 #4 End-Triassic: Pangaea cracks open 9:33 #5 End-Cretaceous: the asteroid 12:32 All five compared 12:57 Why it all happened 13:37 Are we in a sixth? Narrated with an AI voice. Every number in this video is checked against the published research below. Where scientists still disagree, the video says so. Ancient maps are approximate. Sources The Big Five: Barnosky et al. 2011, Nature Ages: ICS Chronostratigraphic Chart 2026/06 Oxygen catastrophe: Lyons et al. 2014, Nature; Poulton et al. 2021, Nature; Kopp et al. 2005, PNAS Ediacaran loss: Evans et al. 2022, PNAS End-Ordovician: Bond & Grasby 2020, Geology; Finnegan et al. 2011, Science; Le Heron & Craig 2008 First land plants: Rubinstein et al. 2010; Strother & Foster 2021, Science Late Devonian: Zheng et al. 2023, EPSL; Bond & Wignall 2008; Sallan & Coates 2010, PNAS Dunkleosteus: Engelman 2023, Diversity; Anderson & Westneat 2007, Biology Letters Early forests: Davies et al. 2024, J. Geol. Soc.; Stein et al. 2020, Current Biology End-Permian: Burgess et al. 2014, PNAS; Burgess & Bowring 2015, Sci. Adv.; Svensen et al. 2009, EPSL; Penn et al. 2018, Science; Clarkson et al. 2015, Science; Stanley 2016, PNAS; Sun et al. 2012, Science; Chen & Benton 2012, Nat. Geosci. End-Triassic: Blackburn et al. 2013, Science; Marzoli et al. 2011, Lithos; Olsen 1999, Science; Melstrom et al. 2025 End-Cretaceous: Schulte et al. 2010, Science; Alvarez et al. 1980, Science; Hildebrand et al. 1991, Geology; Collins et al. 2020, Nat. Commun.; Morgan et al. 2022; Gulick et al. 2019, PNAS; DePalma et al. 2019, PNAS; During et al. 2022, Nature; Fischer-Gödde et al. 2024, Science; Chiarenza et al. 2020, PNAS; Field et al. 2018, Curr. Biol.; Sheehan & Fastovsky 1992, Geology; Longrich et al. 2016, J. Evol. Biol.; Lowery et al. 2018, Nature The common thread: Bond & Grasby 2017, Palaeo3; Rothman 2017, Sci. Adv. Today: IPBES 2019; IUCN Red List 2026-1; Ceballos et al. 2015, Sci. Adv.; Saban & Wiens 2025, Proc. R. Soc. B Full source list with links: see the pinned comment. Image credits Photos (Wikimedia Commons): trilobite fossil, Gary Todd (CC0); Putorana Plateau, jxandreani (CC BY 2.0); zircon, Boris Lobastov (CC BY 4.0); Lystrosaurus skeleton, Smithsonian NMNH (CC0); the Palisades, Gary Miotla (CC BY 3.0). Animal silhouettes from PhyloPic, recolored and outlined: Dunkleosteus, Olof Moleman (CC BY 4.0); Tyrannosaurus, Fred Wierum (CC BY 4.0); Purgatorius, Nobu Tamura (CC BY 4.0); others CC0 (Matt Celeskey, Christine Axon, Richard Rich, Tasman Dixon, Caleb M. Gordon, T. Michael Keesey, Jose Carlos Arenas-Monroy, Scott Hartman, Amy Beauvois, Steven Coombs). #Science #MassExtinction #EarthHistory #Paleontology #WhyItAllHappened