Phanerozoic mass extinctions
E415306
Phanerozoic mass extinctions are the handful of catastrophic, globally disruptive biodiversity crises over the last ~540 million years that abruptly wiped out large proportions of Earth’s species and reshaped the course of evolution.
All labels observed (3)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Big Five mass extinctions | 1 |
| Phanerozoic mass extinction record | 1 |
| Phanerozoic mass extinctions canonical | 1 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T4145582 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Phanerozoic mass extinctions Context triple: [Late Devonian extinction, partOf, Phanerozoic mass extinctions]
-
A.
Late Ordovician mass extinction
The Late Ordovician mass extinction was one of Earth’s largest biodiversity crises, during which severe climate change and glaciation led to the rapid loss of a substantial portion of marine species.
-
B.
Permian–Triassic mass extinction
The Permian–Triassic mass extinction was the most severe biodiversity crisis in Earth's history, wiping out the majority of marine and terrestrial species around 252 million years ago and marking the boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.
-
C.
Capitanian (Guadalupian) mass extinction
The Capitanian (Guadalupian) mass extinction was a major mid-Permian biodiversity crisis that significantly reduced marine life and set the stage for the even larger end-Permian extinction.
-
D.
Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event
The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event was a profound evolutionary radiation during the Ordovician Period that saw a dramatic increase in marine biodiversity and the establishment of many major animal groups in Paleozoic oceans.
-
E.
Carboniferous rainforest collapse
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse was a mass extinction and fragmentation event of vast tropical coal-forest ecosystems around 305 million years ago, profoundly reshaping terrestrial biodiversity and climate in the late Paleozoic.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Phanerozoic mass extinctions Target entity description: Phanerozoic mass extinctions are the handful of catastrophic, globally disruptive biodiversity crises over the last ~540 million years that abruptly wiped out large proportions of Earth’s species and reshaped the course of evolution.
-
A.
Late Ordovician mass extinction
The Late Ordovician mass extinction was one of Earth’s largest biodiversity crises, during which severe climate change and glaciation led to the rapid loss of a substantial portion of marine species.
-
B.
Permian–Triassic mass extinction
The Permian–Triassic mass extinction was the most severe biodiversity crisis in Earth's history, wiping out the majority of marine and terrestrial species around 252 million years ago and marking the boundary between the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras.
-
C.
Capitanian (Guadalupian) mass extinction
The Capitanian (Guadalupian) mass extinction was a major mid-Permian biodiversity crisis that significantly reduced marine life and set the stage for the even larger end-Permian extinction.
-
D.
Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event
The Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event was a profound evolutionary radiation during the Ordovician Period that saw a dramatic increase in marine biodiversity and the establishment of many major animal groups in Paleozoic oceans.
-
E.
Carboniferous rainforest collapse
The Carboniferous rainforest collapse was a mass extinction and fragmentation event of vast tropical coal-forest ecosystems around 305 million years ago, profoundly reshaping terrestrial biodiversity and climate in the late Paleozoic.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
mass extinction event series
ⓘ
paleontological phenomenon ⓘ |
| affects |
evolutionary trajectories of major clades
ⓘ
global ecosystems ⓘ marine biodiversity ⓘ terrestrial biodiversity ⓘ |
| causeOf |
abrupt reduction in taxonomic diversity
ⓘ
collapse of some ecosystems ⓘ faunal turnover ⓘ floral turnover ⓘ |
| characterizedBy |
abrupt global biodiversity loss
ⓘ
elevated extinction rates across multiple clades ⓘ geologically rapid species turnover ⓘ global environmental disruption ⓘ |
| definedBy | sharp peaks in extinction intensity in fossil record ⓘ |
| evidenceFrom |
isotopic excursions in sedimentary rocks
ⓘ
marine invertebrate fossil record ⓘ palynological records ⓘ terrestrial vertebrate fossil record ⓘ |
| followedBy |
evolutionary radiations
ⓘ
origination of new clades ⓘ restructuring of food webs ⓘ |
| hasCause |
bolide impacts (for some events)
ⓘ
large igneous province volcanism (for several events) ⓘ ocean anoxia ⓘ perturbations of the carbon cycle ⓘ rapid climate change ⓘ sea-level fluctuations ⓘ |
| hasEffect |
expansion of ecological generalists after crises
ⓘ
extinction of many specialist taxa ⓘ long-term changes in biodiversity baselines ⓘ shifts in dominance among major taxonomic groups ⓘ |
| hasPart |
Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary
ⓘ
surface form:
Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction
End-Ordovician mass extinction ⓘ End-Permian mass extinction ⓘ End-Triassic mass extinction ⓘ Late Cambrian extinction events ⓘ Late Devonian mass extinction ⓘ Eocene–Oligocene climate transition ⓘ
surface form:
Paleogene (Eocene–Oligocene) extinction events
Quaternary megafaunal extinctions ⓘ |
| numberOfMajorEvents | five to six commonly recognized events ⓘ |
| partOf | Phanerozoic Eon ⓘ |
| startTime | approximately 541 million years ago ⓘ |
| studiedBy |
geochemistry
ⓘ
geology ⓘ paleoclimatology ⓘ paleoecology ⓘ paleontology ⓘ |
| temporalLocation | Phanerozoic Eon ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Phanerozoic mass extinctions Description of subject: Phanerozoic mass extinctions are the handful of catastrophic, globally disruptive biodiversity crises over the last ~540 million years that abruptly wiped out large proportions of Earth’s species and reshaped the course of evolution.
Referenced by (3)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.
this entity surface form:
Phanerozoic mass extinction record
this entity surface form:
Big Five mass extinctions