ExtinctZoo - What Earth Was Like After The Worst Extinction

Episode Date: October 12, 2025

Present day Earth might not always be the easiest place to live in, but let's just say, be glad you don't live during the Induan...

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Oh no. That's why LifeLock monitors hundreds of millions of data points a second for threats to your identity, which is way more than anyone can do on their own. If we find anything suspicious, like new loans are changed, to your financial accounts, we alert you right away, all through text, phone, email, or the LifeLock app. Get the alerts that could make all the difference. Save up to 40% your first year at lifelock.com slash special offer. Terms apply. Approximately 251.9 million years ago, at the end of the

Permian period, life on earth was struggling, and that's putting it very lightly, as the Permian Triassic Extinction event was raging on. And for the uninitiated, this event, commonly known as the Great Dying was the worst extinction our planet has ever endured, and it made the dinosaurs' doomsday look like a warm hug. And a bit different to the dinosaurs' ending as well, this calamity came not from a space rock, but rather from a thing that still surrounds us, even today. Volcanoes. But you can't have a small sigh of relief, since Permian volcanoes were quite a different

breed than those currently. And massive eruptions stemming from the Siberian traps are believed to have ushered in a wide range of unpleasant trees that led to the Great Dying. And unsurprisingly, this included brutal heat, aridity, lava flows, and and the sea, and lava flows and widespread fires, just to name a few. And these conditions would last for thousands upon thousands of years, snuffing out the vast majority of life. And when the dust finally settled, shockingly little remained, with some studies finding that

96% of all marine species died out, and that in total, nine out of every 10 animals perished. It was so severe that even the little could-be nuclear survivors, known as insects, suffered greatly too, which is an important fact if typically mass extinctions don't usually touch these guys. But the Permian one was just that much of a beast. And it would ultimately take the Earth some 50 million years to fully recover, which for comparison, the entire ice age hasn't even been going on for that long in totality. So bottom line, it sucked, a lot. And yet, we only tend to focus on how it was right before the extinction or during it. Rarely does anyone pay attention to what the planet was like immediately afterwards. And this is unfortunate, as it's pretty

interesting in a kind of grim way. As newsflash, things don't get settling better when you lose over 90% of everything, which thus begs the question of what was it like? To the best of our knowledge, this event ended right at the Triassic-Perman boundary, hence the boundary, and was marked by the beginning of the Induin, the early Triassic's first epoch. This period of time played up between 251.9 and 249. million years ago, representing the first two million years following the great dying. And boy oh boy, were they some rough ones, being harsh enough that it makes you question if the immediate survivors were really the truly lucky ones. And if I somehow teleported you to the end to win right now, your first thought would not be to check out

what the survivors were like, as you'd immediately start screaming in pain. And why you ask? Simple, because of the weather and climate, which remained atrocious following the Permian and was arguably at an all-time low, figuratively speaking, as literally the temperature was insane, with blistering heats being the norm across the planet. In fact, one study reported that the average sea surface temperature in the equatorial oceans possibly would have exceeded 140 degrees Fahrenheit or 40 degrees Celsius, the same temperature that health organizations say to never surpass in a hot tub. Yeah, a freaking hot tub.

And on land, it was even worse, with some days possibly breaking 140 degrees Fahrenheit or 60 degrees Celsius, which is a basically hot enough to cook pork, fish, beef, or in this case, you. And you could expect burns, dehydration, and a heat stroke all to occur very, very quickly. I mean, you can essentially think of the land as a giant oven, with some strong emphasis on the giant part. As back then, the supercontinent of Pangaea was at the peak of its size, with it then being composed of all major land masses. It also didn't help much that much of Pengea was aired. The heat, plus the well-placed central Pengean mountains, transformed much of the continent's interior into expansive super deserts, in which life was near absent, and dunes would have gone on for thousands of miles or kilometers,

perhaps even putting Aracus to shame. And so, if you were teleported there, good luck getting out of that. And even if you could figure out the whole heat situation, there were still other Induan hurdles to overcome, a big one being the air, or rather lack thereof. You see, we humans can really only enjoy Earth's air thanks to the delicate balance of oxygen in the atmosphere, which stands at approximately 21% currently. And that might not seem very high, but it gets the job done. and just slight changes can be catastrophic, which in this case wasn't even slight, with the number being completely out of whack following the permanent extinction, with levels being as low as 12%.

And this number is what we would consider deficient by human standards, and breathing this triassic air would have caused the following effects. A rapid pulse, fast breathing, GI issues, headaches, poor sleep, fatigue, and if you stick around long enough, high altitude pulmonary and cerebral edema, wherein fluid would fill up your lungs and brain, which I can assure you would not be pleasant. Oh and ah, before I forget, not only did you have little oxygen, aridity, and heat to look forward to, you also had hypercanes. No, not hurricanes, hypercains. These were essentially hurricanes on steroids, which we have never ever seen,

but hypothetically form once sea temperatures reach a certain threshold, specifically 50 degrees Celsius or 122 degrees Fahrenheit. When this happens, you then get the apocalyptic hypercains that are likely capable of achieving wind speeds as fast as 970 kilometers or 600 miles per hour, which is not only fast enough to easily flatten and reinforce concrete structures, but is also faster than any tornado ever recorded, period. And, uh, about double at that. Then to make matters worse, just staying away from the coast would have kept you out of danger, which historically is the case with hurricanes, as hypercains in ridiculously low central pressures, meaning that these megastorms could one, have immense lifespans, possibly lasting for several weeks,

and two be absolutely massive in size, with the biggest systems, possibly being as large as continental America. Yeah. So in other words, no matter where you are, brace yourself. And if these things couldn't be any more scary, it turns out that they were so intense they literally damaged the ozone layer. And simply standing in one, if you were able to somehow ignore the whole rip you apart winds, would essentially make it so you can't breathe and give you altitude sickness due to the ridiculously low pressure core. And so at this point, you may be confused on how anything could even survive these times, and for the most part, they couldn't, with many areas being near or entirely void of meaningful life. Yet truthfully, not all a pangea was this extreme, with the more northern and southern

latitudes providing refuge for animals and plants, as they could be a mix of warmer, but not burn your face off, to more temperate biomes, and then areas close to the poles could even get a bit cold, but not in the way you might imagine cold, as during this whole epoch, it would have been too hot for ice to permanently form, including at the poles themselves. Sorry, Santa Claus. And in these areas, away from the center, early triassic fauna and flora were finally allowed a breather. For the trees, it was conifers and lycophites in particular that are doing quite well, and vast forests composed of them would have stretched out across certain regions, while in other areas they were present, but a bit more sparse in abundance. Meanwhile, studies on various formations

also suggest that numerous waterways cut through many environments, providing some much-welcome in fresh water and resources for the animals and plants that live within. And if I could somehow drop you into one of these more sane areas, I can almost guarantee what animal you would see first, as it was without a doubt the king of Pangaeo, and by a huge margin at that, being the most successful animal of the entire early Triassic, and a contender for the most successful animal ever, period.

And its name, the Listrosaurus. Now granted, when you get a good look at this guy, you might be left feeling a bit underwhelmed, and perhaps even confused as to how a creature like this becomes king. But don't be sleeping on the Listerosaurus, as it was full on metal. I mean, it literally survived the worst extinction event of all time with flying colors, and its survival alone has made it a fan favorite amongst paleontologists, who have always been highly interested in just how the heck did this guy beat the Great Dying.

After all, the Listerousaurus doesn't exactly look all that remarkably tough on the outside, no offense, with a genus bearing a superficial resemblance to pigs. And they generally weren't the largest either, with most species being about the size of a small dock, while the biggest still fell under 10 feet or 3 meters long, tail included. And in addition to not being giant, it wasn't like Listrasaurus with some voracious killing machine or armored tank, rather just an innocent or bivorous therapsid, whose most unique trait was arguably just as two sole teeth, which came in the form of tusk-like canines.

So just how did it survive then? Well, there's a few ideas. One of the more straightforward ones is that it's simply locked out. But with that said, there are some things about it that do suggest that there was some skill dip at play too. but the prominent idea suggesting its cracked digging skills were key. You see, Listeros' tusks might have actually operated like biological shovels. And to go along with this, each species came equipped with robust hind limbs, and then proportionally even more chiseled forelimbs, signs that it dug.

And why? To nest in burrows. This would have been a huge advantage, as the air during this time became hazardous and toxic, not to mention that also helped keep them sheltered from the intense heat and UV radiation. Additionally, these guys were seemingly S-tier breathers as well. possessing barrel chest that could house large lungs, short internal nostrils that allowed for rapid breathing, and finally, high neural spines, that empowered the muscles responsible for breathing and contracting its chest, and thus transforming it into a pure oxygen gobbler, an important trait during the Great Dying,

with, you know, the 12% oxygen levels and stuff. However, despite this hypothesis being popular, there are other ideas out there, with another trendy proposal having to do with the hypothesis based on the growth marks of a specimen coming out of Antarctica. To be exact, certain features, are seen on the tusks of one individual hinted that Listerosaurus could potentially interstate to prolong torpor, which is a lot like hibernation, helping them to kind of just sleep out the worst of the permanent extinction. And then once the storm passed, per se, it seems like Listeros had won by default. As in this new early transic world, this genus found themselves virtually alone, with basically no competition from other herbivores and little threats from predators,

allowing them to rapidly expand and colonize Pangaea, especially in the south, where they were the most common land vertebrates by a mile, and could actually compose 95% of all life in certain environments. And so it kind of goes without saying that this is crazy. And as far as paleo stocks go, you couldn't have done better than betting on the Lestresaurus, as near no animal has ever dominated Earth to such a degree by a percentage.

And for comparison, we humans only come close to this number if we team up with all the animals we've domesticated. So simply put, time travelers should expect Listerosaurus to be on the sightseeing list not once, but a few times. But in the end, other life also called this new world home, even if only shortly. As interestingly enough, some of the immediate survivors wouldn't last too long, despite them, you know, just surviving the worst extinction event of all time. And this also included the animal you'd hope to avoid the most during this period,

the mosca rhinus. This was a therosephalian that belonged to the Ketanathode family, and was in some ways the lion in the early Triassic. And honestly, it looked at a tad bit like one too. Yet this was no feline, nor even a mammal. But ironically like lions, it did live within Africa, at least where Africa was back then, being primarily found in what is now present day, South Africa. And before the extinction has started, these guys appeared to have been on the rise,

quickly replacing the various gorgonopsids as the top apex predators during the late Permian. But before they could achieve total domination, the rug was pulled from underneath them in the Great Dying, and they were left barely holding on. Yet, despite their weakened state, the Mosca Rhinus was still not to be trifled with, as they remained, deadly as deadly can be, with their main tool of destruction being ultra-powerful, broad reinforced skulls, and jaws, which housed curved and smooth-cutting incisors, post-canines, and then most importantly, there are supersized canines that took on a saber-like appearance. And these unique teeth were comparable length of the saber-teeth seen in the gorgonopsids,

the previous rulers, and were both thick and strong, allowing masquerayness to pierce through tough skin and retain iron-like grips and struggling prey, while simultaneously crushing down with its jaw muscles. However, despite the appearance of its canines, classically, Moscairinus isn't considered a true saber-tooth predator. And if you want to know why, go ahead and check out my last video, where I explained this and pretty much everything else about saber-toothed. So yes, it was not a true saber tooth, but it definitely checked the apex predator box, and likely was one of the only things that could take down an adult listresaurus, with the only real sever lining here being that these early Triassic Moscairinus suffered from somewhat stunted growth, typically being 13% smaller than pre-extinction species. specimens, almost like insular dwarfism except on a global scale, which makes sense due to the earth having lost so many resources.

And we do see that many of the other predatory life tended to be smaller as well, nicely demonstrated by our ancestors, the synodons, who also did produce a few herbivores and omnivores. Now they at first emerged in the Permian, but were now, like the Listerosaurus, slowly reaping the benefits of being the last standing. And at the time, we're dominated by members of the subdivision Sinaknathia, or the dog jaws, which could be found nearly every corner of pangiaea and showed, impressive levels of diversity, with each inhabiting a mixed environments and specializing in different niches. But what truly set them apart from other animals was their universally highly differentiated teeth, which allowed them to process foods with ease and efficiency. This also allowed them to out-compete a lot of other groups, in spite of not being super

huge, with most being no longer than a few rulers in length. And even the largest genus from the Induin, Bay Shanodon, could be at most the size of a medium-sized dog. But something tells me, it probably would have been a tad bit more rowdy. Alas, though, it wasn't our ancient ancestors, or even the Mosco-Rinus, who were the top predators of this wasteland earth, at least from a number's perspective, as that title went to a group that were not synapsids and had been waiting for their shot, the Protero-Sucodei, i.e. reptiles.

This was a family of basal Arcosoriforms, who literally only appeared right before the start of the Great Dying. And usually this would be considered the worst luck of the drop possible, but in their case it was like hitting the jackpot, as they managed not only somehow weather the storm, but then, in the wake of the devastation, explode in numbers, allowing them to outpace the therapsids who'd fared worse and occupy a wide range of niches. To us, or a time traveler, they'd probably be confused for some sort of proto-crock, as they were generally slender, long-snouted animals that were superficially, crocodilian-like, only lacking the armored scoots we see in true crocs, while at the same time their skeletons were much more primitive.

Another defining trait that also made them easily recognizable was their large hooked faces that were filled with recurved labiolingally compressed teeth that bore serrations, allowing them to easily slice and dice flesh. And despite looking very interesting, I would advise extreme caution around these guys, as they could be quite a bit bigger than synodons, with the smaller ones being comparable to large monitor lizards, while the largest genus, the Protero-Sukis measured over 4 meters or 13 feet in length, and weighed hundreds of kilos or pounds. To give you an idea what that looks like, here is what a 13-foot gator looks like.

So yeah, good luck fighting that. There is one issue about this family though, and that is we aren't exactly sure what you need to avoid to prevent a meeting one. Because while they typically lived around river environments, there is debate on if there are terrestrial hunters, semi-aquatic hunters, or a bit of both, with there being evidence of different species occupying different niches. However, what we do know is that they're just about everywhere, with fossils being found in India, South Africa, Argentina, and huge parts of Russia.

Now, this might not sound so widespread, but keep in mind, many places were simply inaccessible due to climate. So in the places where you could actually live, expect these guys everywhere. And so with all these groups mentioned, you now have a pretty good idea of what life was like on land following the apocalypse, with the rest of the animals predominantly being made up with scattered insects, small periptiles, and arthropods. So not exactly a whole lot going on, and this might give you some false confidence that other areas of earth, like fresh water, were lacking too and thus safe.

Yet, this would be a fatal miscalculation, as much of the rivers, lakes, and swamps at the early Triassic, were anoxic. In other words, lacking to solve oxygen, which created dead zones for most aerobic life. Now, this is a small joke, because of course we don't breathe water anyways. But still tread carefully in these parts, if there was one kind of animal that was going on a bit of a rampage in fresh water. Amphibians. Which almost makes you nostalgic about the Carboniferous, am I right? And funnily enough, a lot like the Carboniferous, it was a very specific group that was doing well. the Temnosbondles, in ancient order of primitive tetrapodal amphibians.

Now, these guys can be summed up as having been like the Pretorosucids, a bit crock-like superficially, and were generally much larger than the amphibians of today. And just like the Protero-Sucids, they were pretty much everywhere, and you'd be hard-pressed to wait in the waters and not feel one of these guys latch onto you, considering that the vast majority, if not all, were eager carnivores, that can also provide you with endless, horrifying experience, as there was a lot of diversity across their teeth and jaws. Some had narrow and slender skulls and conical teeth signifying expertise in catching prey, while others bore robust and widened skulls that were fitted with teeth better at cutting or crushing.

You would have also had the quote unquote joy of experiencing their various sizes, as some were no bigger than your hand, while others were routinely longer than you. And these early Triassic temnospondals held the global distribution, but did really like to flock to concentrated areas and making up an uncomfortable amount of the total life. And this overpopulation of amphibians typically occurred in areas of fresh rivers and lakes were abundant. And funny enough, one place that really took a liking to them is the usual suspect when it comes to strange wildlife and creepy crawlies. In other words, good old Australia, as it was there where the arcadian environment was found, in early triassic

formation in which 90% of every single animal was an amphibian, with the remaining 10% being fish, reptiles, and synapsids. And it wasn't just freshwater where you could expect these amphibians to be lurking, as opposed to now where there is just one amphibian who can endure the sting of saltwater, back then, many could, and some of the temnos spondals were actually marine, which is a great segment into what the oceans and seas were doing following the Great Dying. And honestly, it would really be more accurate to me just to say the oceans, as big old bodies of waters were the main trend, with just two bodies being the main players, the super ocean panthalassa, which dwarfed even our current Pacific Ocean, and then the paleotethas which laid to the east, sitting within

the islands of China. Just like the land and the freshwater environments, the oceans too have been dealt a number and were still quite inhospitable in certain ways. Like I mentioned previously, the average sea surface temperature was much higher, for one. It would have essentially felt like a warm bath, while large swathes were anoxic, just like in the freshwater environment, intended to run low on the pH side, in other words, acidic. And taking a dive in most places would have made you think you were swimming on some sort of alien planet, as not even the reefs felt or looked the same, would the vast majority be microbial reefs instead of coral reefs like now? The water might have appear different too, not being the blue like we are used to, as some studies revealed high

presences of green and purple sulfur bacteria, whose pigments imply that sections of the ocean were a range of murky green and olive colors, as well as some purplish brown hues, especially near shore and the epicontinental areas. So between this overgrowth of bacteria and all the different water conditions, it's no surprise the marine life could be pretty barren. And given that you had the Panthalasic super ocean, this pretty much meant you could swim in the water for a near endless amount of time without really having to worry about some jaws interrupting the vibes. Yet, in the end, life, of course, persisted beneath the waves, at least in some parts, with the highest concentrations being seen in coastal or shallower waters, especially in those of the

paleotathous, which were somewhat protected and boxed in. And if you were going to take a cruise here, I'd highly recommend bringing along a fishing rod or two, as the kings now, or fish. And I'm not talking about sharks, but rather rafeited fish and the celiacans, who have been largely unaffected by the volcanic eruptions. Many kinds represented these waters, such as Australosomis, bobasotrania, taronischalus, saricthes, and Waitia. And when looking at them, we noticed that a common trope with these fish was that they pretty much all held cosmopolitan ranges and were the top predators, representing just about the only time that bony fish were at the tip top of the food chain, with the largest marine predator likely being one of them, the birchuria. This was a worldwide-found

bull shark-sized fish that was a evidently voracious hunter, using extraordinary speeds and unique conical teeth to feast on a wide variety of animals, which we know, based off of fossilized stomach remains, at the very least, included other fish. Go figure. The location and frequency of its remains also showed that this predator often lived offshore, so good news for anyone looking to enjoy some early Triassic beaches. Although, of course, I do still have to recommend caution. As while rare, other apex predators did prowl the coasts, and this included the well-known high-bolices. a group of ancient sharks that have been around since the late Devonian and managed to slip by the Pyramian extinction Now many of the time were smaller sharks with the elicitis for example being just a tad bit bigger than your foot

While another known genus the paleobades was just about an arm's length and so Unsurprisingly these smaller kinds of hybridons likely wouldn't have paid much heed to human-sized food Nor human textured food for that matter as they typically had adaptations for crushing heart-sheled prey or catching small fish But there was one kind that could at least still give you a hell of a fright and probably a painful bite, the acridus. This was the durophagous genus, possessing blunt and broad teeth, but was quite large for an early Triassic hybridond, achieving similar to the Bergeria, with the largest specimens measuring about 2.5 meters or 8.2 feet. Oh, and along with that swimming in the oceans, it seems that it too could also travel into fresh waters if it pleased, with the only saving grace here being its limited range, as it was restricted to the waters just around the US.

And swimming side by side with the hybridons was another group, the Elasmo Branch Eye, which you may know include modern sharks. However, when it comes to this group, we pretty much know next to nothing, as the only fragmented teeth have been found in tracic formations. So in other words, we know they were there, but body size and niche are out of the picture. And so this does obviously open up a lot of mystery around them. But the true mystery of the Induan waters don't concern them, but rather a legendary family of fish from the Permian, the Eugenio Dantara. They are a poorly understood order of extinct fish, yet it were clearly one of a kind, possessing some of the most iconic jaws of all time, showcased by the likes of the giant

Kili Caprion or Destis, whose faces are both hard to look at and to turn away from. And for a long time, it was believed that these guys had perished in the Great Dying, along with 90% of all other animals. However, at some point it came to light that they might have survived far longer than we thought, and were actually present in the Induin. Now fortunately, or unfortunately, look at it, it wasn't these two genera that has survived. Rather, the Fidenia, a much smaller type who measured about 1.5 meters or 5 feet in length, but still had that a remarkably strange face, which in its case consisted of a spirit rostrum on top and a wheeled jaw on the bottom that held teeth designed for shelled prey. Additionally, other finds showed the closely related

Cassiotis persisted in these waters as well, a shark of near exact proportions that died, although it did lack an elongated upper nose and didn't really keep up with the whole wheeled face look. And what's pretty cool about these two is that they actually seem to go hand in hand, as waters off of Pangea and Canada are routinely home to both, and not just them, but also to a third kind as well, the Paradestis. And this is rather big news, as it wasn't a part of the same subdivision as the former two, instead being a type of Edistoidia,

which are also known as the Cizorface Sharks for their iconic vertically split mouth. And in it, the Paradestis contained an interesting blend of both pavement-like teeth and those that could cut you, especially in the bottom of its tooth whirl. And because of this strange blend, we don't know exactly what it ate. But whatever it did, it seemingly helped to survive the extinction event. And there's further evidence of yet more of these sharks around Pangaeo. So it seems like they remain suppressing diverse.

But, as the story somehow goes, it would not last too long. As by the Mittriassic, they were all gone. But though these guys and many of the other, strange and fascinating life disappeared, even after for surviving the worst extinction event of all time, life would then go on to create the next iteration of oddities, as the following millions of years would produce legitimately some of the strangest animals of all time. But that's a story for a different time.

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