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The Late Devonian extinction was one of five major extinction events in the history of the Earth's biota. A major extinction occurred at the boundary that marks the beginning of the last phase of the Devonian period, the Famennian faunal stage, (the Frasnian-Famennian boundary), about 364 million years ago, when nearly all of the fossil agnathan fishes suddenly disappeared. A second strong pulse closed the Devonian period. Overall, 19% of all families and 50% of all genera went extinct.

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  • Late Devonian extinction
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  • The Late Devonian extinction was one of five major extinction events in the history of the Earth's biota. A major extinction occurred at the boundary that marks the beginning of the last phase of the Devonian period, the Famennian faunal stage, (the Frasnian-Famennian boundary), about 364 million years ago, when nearly all of the fossil agnathan fishes suddenly disappeared. A second strong pulse closed the Devonian period. Overall, 19% of all families and 50% of all genera went extinct.
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abstract
  • The Late Devonian extinction was one of five major extinction events in the history of the Earth's biota. A major extinction occurred at the boundary that marks the beginning of the last phase of the Devonian period, the Famennian faunal stage, (the Frasnian-Famennian boundary), about 364 million years ago, when nearly all of the fossil agnathan fishes suddenly disappeared. A second strong pulse closed the Devonian period. Overall, 19% of all families and 50% of all genera went extinct. Although it is clear that there was a massive loss of biodiversity towards the end of the Devonian, the extent of time during which these events took place is uncertain, with estimates ranging from 500,000 to 15 million years, the latter being the full length of the Famennian. Nor is it clear whether it concerned two sharp mass extinctions or a series of smaller extinctions, though the latest research suggests multiple causes and a series of distinct extinction pulses through an interval of some three million years. Some consider the extinction to be as many as seven distinct events, spread over about 25 million years, including particularly notable extinctions at the ends of the Givetian, Frasnian, and Famennian stages. Some references cite 250 million years as the span of time over which the extinctions occurred. By the late Devonian, there were plants, insects, and amphibians on land, fish in the seas, and huge reefs built by corals and stromatoporoids. The continents of Euramerica and Gondwana were just beginning to move together to form Pangea. The extinction seems to have only affected marine life. Reef-building organisms were almost completely wiped out, so that coral reefs returned only with the development of modern corals in the Mesozoic. Brachiopods, trilobites, and other families were heavily affected. The causes of these extinctions are unclear. The leading theories suggest that changes in sea level and ocean anoxia, possibly triggered by global cooling or oceanic volcanism, were most likely responsible, although the impact of an extraterrestrial body such as a comet has also been considered. Some statistical analysis suggests that the decrease in diversity was caused more by a decrease in speciation than by an increase in extinctions.
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