Ancient Inferno: Europe's Millennia of Triassic Fires
Geologists from Utrecht University have discovered that fern-dominated savannahs in Northwest Europe were prone to massive wildfires following the end-Triassic mass extinction. The team used a new 'Palynomorph Darkness Index' to track wildfire activity through the color of fossilized pollen and spores.
Why it matters
Understanding ancient climate-driven fire cycles provides critical context for how ecosystems respond to rapid global warming and atmospheric CO2 spikes.
The end-Triassic mass extinction, 201 million years ago, is linked to volcanism that resulted from the break-up of Pangea and which pumped out vast amounts of CO 2 into the atmosphere causing extreme global warming of 5 to 10 degrees Celsius. As a result, tree-dominated vegetation collapsed and the highly disturbed landscapes were colonized by ferns that formed savannahs across large swaths of what is now Northwest Europe. New research by an international team led by geologists from Utrecht University and published in Nature Geoscience on 21 July 2026 has found that these fern savannahs were prone to large-scale burning, whereby the ferns themselves acted as the fuel that fanned the flames.
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