The plant fossil record reflects just two great extinction events

What is it about?

Diversity trends among plants follow quite a different trajectory to that seen in the animal record. There were times of diversity decline among animals when plant diversity in fact increased (e.g. the late Devonian event) or suffered only a very temporary decline (e.g. Triassic - Jurassic boundary). There were other times when plant diversity suffered a significant decline, but not animals (late Pennsylvanian times). The only time when both animal and plant life underwent a significant diversity decline was the Permian - Triassic event.

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Why is it important?

It is arguable that we are not seeing today the sixth mass extinction, but in fact this is only the second truly mass extinction that affected most of the Earth's biotas. This gives rather greater urgency for trying to deal with the events happening today.

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