Join Jennifer Joy and vocal sound FX artist Benu Muhammad on a lively journey through the dramatic history of life on Earth. In this episode of the Jennifer Joy podcast, we explore major extinction events and the remarkable recoveries that followed, from the Cambrian explosion to today's Holocene crisis. Experience dynamic soundscapes and narratives that bring to life the species that thrived and those that vanished, and how life reemerged after each catastrophe. Perfect for science enthusiasts and creative minds, this episode celebrates the resilience and wonder of life through the ages. Tune in for an intriguing and light-hearted adventure through 3.8 billion years of Earth's history.
Transcripts
Jennifer Joy:
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Welcome to the Jennifer Joy podcast, where science meets art. In this episode, we're going to talk about life's triumphs and tragedies. Now, life has been on this planet for 3.8 billion years, and it has gone through times where it's flourished, and then it's gone through these massive extinction periods. Scientists have been able to identify when those extinction periods were and what life forms were lost. The most extreme of these, they call the major extinction periods.
Jennifer Joy:
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And in all this time, 3.8 billion years, there have only been five major extinction periods prior to the one that we're going through today. So, in response to this, I wrote a piece exploring the life forms that thrived and the ones that died during these major extinction periods. My troupe, primarily Benu Muhammad, who was a rapper and a vocal sound effects artist, then worked to develop this into a complex soundscape. In this episode, Bennu Muhammad and I present to you the extinction and recovery voices. 542 million years ago, the Cambrian explosion.
Jennifer Joy:
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Well, it wasn't a literal explosion. Suddenly, animals and all in the oceans. Opabinia, with five eyes and a grasping tentacle in the middle of its face. Anomalocaris at 3ft long, the terrifying giant of the ocean. Life diversified and proliferated wildly.
Jennifer Joy:
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Then, 450 million years ago, the Ordovician-Silurian extinction. 27% of families and 57% of all genera went extinct, maybe because of global cooling. But then a vast variety of fish developed, insects appeared, and animals start to leave the oceans. The amphibians. But then, 375 million years ago, the late Devonian extinction, 19% of all families and 50% of all genera gone.
Jennifer Joy:
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Global cooling or oceanic volcanic activity or comet impacts. Then insects got big dragonflies with wingspans of two and a half feet and an even greater variety of reptiles and amphibians dominated both the water and land. But then, 251 million years ago, the Permian extinction, the worst of all the great dying, 96% of all marine species and 70% of all terrestrial vertebrate species went extinct. Every type of organism was hit. The causes probably included climate change, a meteor impact and coal or gas fires.
Jennifer Joy:
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It took life up to 10 million years to develop any biodiversity. But then smaller insects ow early dinosaurs, archosaurs, crocodiles. But you know what's gonna happen next? 205 million years ago, the Triassic Jurassic extinction. About half of the species on earth were wiped out, opening the way for the dinosaurs, who then diversified and dominated the earth.
Jennifer Joy:
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Quetzalcoatlus, a 575-pound bird that was also a very fast ground runner. Coney office precedens a snake with a lizard head.
Benu Muhammad:
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It's getting closer. It's getting closer. What the. What the.
Jennifer Joy:
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Brachiosaurus. A 50-foot-tall dinosaur with a 30 foot long neck.
Benu Muhammad:
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Too much.
Jennifer Joy:
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Broccoli and early mammals scurrying through tree branches or burrowing into the ground. But we know how that ended. 65 million years ago, a comet the size of a city came hurtling towards the earth. It was a very bad day for the dinosaurs, but it was a very good day for mammals that burrowed in the ground. Without the dinosaurs, these mammals thrived.
Jennifer Joy:
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200,000 years ago, one of our earliest ancestors appeared, a squirrel like mammal named purgatorius. The only dinosaurs that remained were the birds. Mammals dominate our land and much of our oceans, among them, dolphins, whales, horses, elephants and humans.
Benu Muhammad:
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Listen, listen. I don't know, I don't know. I don't know.
Jennifer Joy:
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99% of all species that have ever existed are extinct. Where are we now today? The Holocene extinction due to climate change, pollution, and the purposeful destruction of habitats, we humans have triggered the 6th major extinction period of life on this planet. The golden toad and many other amphibians are being lost. The entire Hawaiian Mohoidae songbird family has been lost.
Jennifer Joy:
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The eastern cougar, a north American cougar, went extinct in 2011. Millions of bats in the US have died since 2012 due to a fungal infection in the Yangtze dolphin, a freshwater dolphin that lived in the Yangtze River in China went extinct in 2006. I imagine after every mass extinction period, this deep planetary silence, death, silence. Not the silence of holding your breath and waiting for something to happen, but rather the silence of a stunning universe with no eyes to bear witness to its majesty, no mind quickening to question its origins. Just silence.
Jennifer Joy:
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Vast, still inexorable, but not nothingness. No. Creation was full. The earth was lit by the golden sun, glinting off sharp white glaciers or shining on glowing red lava. Puffy white clouds scuttled across an azure sky, and the barest traces of tenuous life persisted, all unseen, unclothed, in awe.
Jennifer Joy:
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Nature stood naked and alone, without eyes to see it. Creation ached, ached, ached to be perceived. And that's why evolution brought eyes into being. To reflect creation's beauty back to itself. To see it, and then to knit the universe together through thought and idea, even as it meant such seeing.
Jennifer Joy:
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Creatures were both blessed and cursed with the gift that they'd have these terrible, lonely days after seeing too much. Days of staring at walls, wasted, desperate days when swimming in sadness, such creatures would question being itself, would wish for annihilation. That is the curse of seeing the desire to erase. Thanks so much for listening. I'm Jennifer Joy.
Jennifer Joy:
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I wrote and performed in this one with vocal sound effects created and performed by Benu Mohammed. Our sound engineer was saga Legend. You can listen to more episodes of the Jennifer Joy podcast on any podcast platform and sign up for exclusive content from us, including behind the scenes conversations with Benu and me at jenniferjoypodcast.com. dot where you can also link to more content, including written stories, videos and performances where science meets art.
