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The Late Devonian Extinction

In Our Time: Science

CHAPTER

The Tertiary Extinction of Plants in Greenland

The Hagenberg and Carboniferous Boundary are the final catastrophes of the Devonian period. This is when you have the dead-clade waking of the Archaeopteris forest going extinct, and also the demise of the placardorms. There's been some very interesting recent evidence that indicates that this terrestrial extinction could be caused by a dramatic drop in stratospheric ozone. A supernour or an exploding star would give a cosmic ray burst that would strip the ozone layer and lead to ultraviolet radiation coming in which is lethal to life.

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