Zampa's Extinction
205 million years hence
205 million years hence, a pocket of magma shot from the mantle invaded the Earth's crust, eventually approaching the surface beneath what is now western North America. By itself, the Elko Hotspot may have only had a minor impact on life. But it erupted at one of the worst possible locations. As magma shot to the surface, it punctured through the fossilized remnants of a human landfill, filled with plastics and other forms of waste. The petrochemicals locked inside were torched and released, alongside carbon dioxide released from the volcanic activity itself. Humans had indirectly poisoned the atmosphere with greenhouse gases for a second time. The global effects of this included global warming, damage to the ozone layer, and ocean acidification.
The combination of this volcanic activity and the formation of Pangaea Ultima led to one of the worst mass extinctions since the "Great Dying" over 400 million years prior. 80% of all species went extinct. Many of the most prominent terrestrial animal lineages of the Proximozoic - bats, jackalopes, fowl, and crocodiles among them - completely disappeared. Conifers, the last bastion of non-flowering trees, were completely eliminated. The harsh oceanic conditions wiped out stony corals, sea stars, dartsquids, almost all pelagic fish, and foraminiferans.
Despite the carnage, more adaptable lineages would make it through. Neosaurs, a relatively new lineage of endothermic squamates, survived almost unscathed, and would quickly seize ecological dominance in the aftermath. A few mammal and avian lineages would power through, as would sharks, turtles, and lizards. Among invertebrates, crustaceans, sea cucumbers, lepidopterans, hymenopterans, and cephalopods made it through relatively unscathed.
| ← Siberia, 200 myh | Central Pangaea Ultima, 215 myh → |