ArticleProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America2020
Supernova triggers for end-Devonian extinctions.
Article in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 12 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
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12 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- Origin and Evolution of Enzymes with MIO Prosthetic Group: Microbial Coevolution After the Mass Extinction Event.Frontiers in genetics · 2022Pooled it
- Increased and varied radiation during the Sun's encounters with cold clouds in the last 10 million years.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Cosmic ray-driven electron-induced reaction theory quantifies spatiotemporal variations in lower-stratospheric ozone and temperature.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2025Article
- Theory and classification of mass extinction causation.National science review · 2024Review
- Formulation of the cosmic ray-driven electron-induced reaction mechanism for quantitative understanding of global ozone depletion.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2023Article
- Metal-rich stars are less suitable for the evolution of life on their planets.Nature communications · 2023Article
- Sulfur-isotope anomalies recorded in Antarctic ice cores as a potential proxy for tracing past ozone layer depletion events.PNAS nexus · 2022Article
- Cosmogenic radiosulfur tracking of solar activity and the strong and long-lasting El Niño events.Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · 2022Article
- High efficiency laser resonance ionization of plutonium.Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Mercury spikes as evidence of extended arc-volcanism around the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary in the South Tian Shan (southern Uzbekistan).Scientific reports · 2021Article
- Environmental effects of stratospheric ozone depletion, UV radiation, and interactions with climate change: UNEP Environmental Effects Assessment Panel, Update 2020.Photochemical & photobiological sciences : Official journal of the European Photochemistry Association and the European Society for Photobiology · 2021Article
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9 authors.
Funding
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Abstract
The Late Devonian was a protracted period of low speciation resulting in biodiversity decline, culminating in extinction events near the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary. Recent evidence indicates that the final extinction event may have coincided with a dramatic drop in stratospheric ozone, possibly due to a global temperature rise. Here we study an alternative possible cause for the postulated ozone drop: a nearby supernova explosion that could inflict damage by accelerating cosmic rays that can deliver ionizing radiation for up to [Formula: see text] ky. We therefore propose that the end-Devonian extinctions were triggered by supernova explosions at [Formula: see text], somewhat beyond the "kill distance" that would have precipitated a full mass extinction. Such nearby supernovae are likely due to core collapses of massive stars; these are concentrated in the thin Galactic disk where the Sun resides. Detecting either of the long-lived radioisotopes [Formula: see text] or [Formula: see text] in one or more end-Devonian extinction strata would confirm a supernova origin, point to the core-collapse explosion of a massive star, and probe supernova nucleosynthesis. Other possible tests of the supernova hypothesis are discussed.
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