- Wildfires may have sparked ecosystem collapse during Earth's worst mass extinction. The fossil plant records of eastern Australia and Antarctica show high abundances of burnt, or charcoalified, plants throughout the late Permian Period https://pubs.geoscienceworld.org/sepm/palaios/article-abstract/37/6/292/614825/END-PERMIAN-BURNOUT-THE-ROLE-OF-PERMIAN-TRIASSIC?redirectedFrom=fulltext 23 comments science