Not dead yet Even the worst mass extinction had its oases Plants thrived in present-day China throughout the End-Permian extinction. Elizabeth Rayne Mar 18, 2025 7:45 am | 3 Credit: Corey Ford Credit: Corey Ford Story textSizeSmallStandardLargeWidth *StandardWideLinksStandardOrange* Subscribers only Learn moreAbout 252 million years ago, volcanic eruptions triggered the End-Permian Mass Extinction, also known as the Great Dying. About 96 percent of marine species were wiped outbut were things just as grim on land?Scientists have debated whether this event caused nearly as much terrestrial destruction. Now, researchers from the Nanjing Institute of Geology and Paleontology (NIGPAS) of the Chinese Academy of Sciences suggest that terrestrial ecosystems did not suffer nearly as much as the oceans.Led by paleontologist Feng Liu, the NIGPAS team found evidence for refugiums, oases where life thrived despite the devastation. Not only did these refugiums give life a chance to survive the mass extinction event, which lasted 200,000 years, but they are now thought to have been crucial to rebuilding ecosystems in much less time than was previously assumed.This environment might have served as a refugium for the iconic Mesozoic flora that emerged in the late Permian, potentially contributing to the stability of the food chain and attracting numerous terrestrial animals that survived, the NIGPAS team said in a study recently published in Science Advances.Life, uh, finds a wayAt the Turpan-Hami Basin, an archaeological site in Xinjiang, Liu and his team unearthed fossilized tree trunks and fern stems, their roots still firmly planted in the stone that was once soil hundreds of millions of years ago, that demonstrated these plants had actually grown there and were not just scattered remains.Preserved pollen grains and other spores told them about the diversity of plant life in the refugium, something like an oasis where there is food and water available, and environmental conditions are moderate enough to keep organisms surviving through natural disasters and other adverse conditions.The researchers tracked which species disappeared as they went from older to younger rock layers, which spanned from before the mass extinction to directly after. Using zircon dating of the rock layers in which spores were embedded, they determined that most of the plant species found had started growing in the area 60160,000 years before the mass extinction and persisted through up to 210,000 years after the catastrophe.Some earlier plants might not have made it through the extinction since rock layers from the onset of the End-Permian Mass Extinction showed a decrease in pollen and spores, as well as fewer plant species. Other species were scarce because they had not been as well-preserved as others; the team did not automatically assume the scarcity of a plant that did not fossilize meant it had gone extinct.While there were plant species that ended up being victims of the Great Dying, analysis of species through spore and pollen told the team that only about 21 percent of them succumbed to extinction.Life will not be containedThe fossils also revealed the presence of plant species known to grow near lakes, which meant an environment that most likely provided drinking water for land-dwelling animals. Fossilized spores farther from what were once the banks of an ancient lake or the edge of a lakeplain suggest it was surrounded by a forest of gymnospermous trees, such as conifers or ginkgo, and ferns.Because the researchers found so many spores from plant species known to grow in humid climates, they think the regional climate before the extinction was either humid or sub-humid, with plenty of rain. It was a lush environment that would see dry periods during the mass extinction event, but not be completely devastated.Despite some species of plants vanishing, those that were found to have survived during and after the extinction mostly belonged to conifers and pteridosperms (now-extinct plants similar to ferns), which showed a remarkable ability to adapt to drought, as Liu and his team said in the same study.The drought turned out to be only temporary. Younger rock layers were found to contain a greater abundance of pollen and spores from species that grew during the extinction event. The types of plants represented suggest a climate that had returned to subhumid and was more habitable.Fossils of animals found at the site support its role as a haven for life. From the herbivorous Lystrosaurus (not a dinosaur), which looked something like a walrus with legs and a shovel face, to the carnivorous chroniosuchians that resembled giant lizards and fed on insects and small amphibians, the refugium in what is now Xinjiang kept life going.Both flora and fauna would soon spread across terrestrial environments once again. Life on land flourished only 75,000 years after the End-Permian Mass Extinction, so life really does find a way.Science Advances, 2025. DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.ads5614Elizabeth Rayne Elizabeth Rayne is a creature who writes. Her work has appeared on SYFY WIRE, Space.com, Live Science, Grunge, Den of Geek, and Forbidden Futures. She lurks right outside New York City with her parrot, Lestat. When not writing, she is either shapeshifting, drawing, or cosplaying as a character nobody has ever heard of. Follow her on Threads and Instagram @quothravenrayne. 3 Comments