Life on Earth, from simple microorganisms that evolved and diversified to the incredible diversity of species that exist today, has always been vibrant.
Mass extinctions occur seemingly without warning, wiping out countless species and allowing others to take their place.
But mass extinctions are not only caused by catastrophes such as supervolcanoes and asteroid impacts.
New research shows that around the time of the five largest mass extinctions in history, Earth's chemical makeup was "shaken.".
In retrospect, it was a wake-up call for things to come.
A new study published in journal Nature Communications , shows that the Earth's climate has undergone five distinct climate regimes over the past 539 million years, separated by abrupt transition periods of rapid environmental change.
Scientists have found that during these transitional periods, life on Earth was particularly vulnerable to mass extinction, providing a new historical explanation for why some periods of time were marked by such extreme biodiversity loss.
Vulnerability map based on data from the five major mass extinctions (Livina et al., Nature , 2026)
«"When a system approaches a critical transition," he said, "it provides information about possible future large-scale changes, such as a mass extinction or even a series of such extinctions.".
What does this mean for today?
This study offers a historical analysis – it cannot predict what will happen to humanity or other species currently experiencing an ongoing climate crisis and a period of accelerated extinction.
See also: Earth's largest mass extinction reveals frightening parallels with the modern world.
«"Our research shows that the current geological era, the Cenozoic, is exceptionally stable and has low vulnerability," he explained.
«"This doesn't mean that external geophysical or anthropogenic influences wouldn't have had a significant impact on the evolution of the biosphere. It simply means that under different background conditions, existing in other geological eras, such influences would have had a much greater effect.".
The results of the study were published in Nature magazine .
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