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11.9.2006 Extinction Happens

(running time 5:11)

If you think the catastrophe that decimated the dinosaurs 65 million years ago was the biggest extinction event in Earth's history, think again. Below, Sam Bowring of MIT explains why we should know about another, even greater biotic wipeout.

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Geologist Sam Bowring is a professor in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences at MIT. With high-precision dating techniques, Bowring and colleagues have sought to understand the time scale of the Permian extinction, one key to determining its causes. NOVA scienceNOW followed Bowring and his team to the Nevada desert to sample rocks across a suspected Permo-Triassic boundary.