Episode
22. The dawn of dangerous seas in the Triassic
- Podcast
- The Fossil Files
- Published
- Feb 10, 2026
- Duration seconds
- 2014
- Processing state
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Summary
Life nearly died 252 million years ago in a mass extinction at the end of the Permian. It was long thought that it took 10s of millions of years into the Triassic for life to recover and get back to a 'new normal'. That was until a new and very muddy fossil site from the high Arctic revealed a staggering diversity of predators and tetrapods in the earliest Triassic seas. This week we take a look at the new findings and its implications for life's ability to recover from major extinctions. This week's paper is "Earliest oceanic tetrapod ecosystem reveals rapid complexification of Triassic marine communities" by Aubrey Roberts, published in Science in November 2025 DOI: 10.1126/science.adx739 An accessible summary can be found here. You can see lots of nice pictures and get some extra context from some slides by Jørn Hurum here Wide screen art by Robert Back.