#  A New Way to Measure Five Mass Extinctions on Earth 

 





May 24, 2018

 

 

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 **Andrew Knoll** and a team of researchers from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Carnegie Institution for Science, used a metric they termed "swing factor" to determine the ecological impact from the change in the number of animals within each palaeo-community in a given time-frame. The study, published in the latest issue of [Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences](http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2018/04/18/1719976115) showed that of the five extinction events, the Permian-Triassic event had the largest swing. Using the swing factor, palaeontologists can now compare the ecological impact of the Permian-Triassic extinction event with others. Media: [Harvard Magazine](https://harvardmagazine.com/2018/09/andrew-knoll-harvard) [ScienceDaily](https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2018/04/180423155104.htm), [The Wire](https://thewire.in/the-sciences/a-new-way-to-measure-the-five-death-blows-earth-dealt-to-its-life)

#####  Image: The network of clusters. Credit: Knoll et al



 

 

 



 

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