Ancient climate crisis triggered mass extinction
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Alexander Lukeneder, a paleontologist at the Natural History Museum Vienna, compiled 150 years of research into a new book detailing the Carnian Crisis, a global climate event that occurred 233 to 235 million years ago in Austria and beyond.
This crisis began with massive volcanic eruptions and released large amounts of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere.
The eruptions deposited over 1,000 meters of basalt across parts of Canada and the United States, and also caused significant warming and increased humidity worldwide. Researchers focused their work in Lunz am See, Austria, where they discovered finely layered rock formations containing well-preserved fossils from the Middle Triassic period. These formations provided a detailed record of the environmental changes during the crisis, allowing scientists to study the layers millimeter by millimeter through core samples.
The Natural History Museum Vienna now holds a collection of 20,000 Triassic fossils, the largest of its kind globally. The Carnian Crisis lasted over two million years and led to the collapse of entire ecosystems, particularly impacting marine life. A narrow geological zone in Austria, stretching from Mödling to Großreifling, contains sedimentary rocks from this period, yielding exceptional fossils including ammonites, fish, and, for the first time, fossilized squid cartilage.
Citizens also contributed to the research, with Birgitt and Karl Aschauer from Waidhofen an der Ybbs excavating hundreds of valuable fossils for scientific study, leading to the description of new species of squid and bristle worms.
