Washington Post today is carrying this article summarizing some new developments about the great Permian extinction event. Thought to have destroyed 70% of all land species and perhaps 90% of all ocean species, the causes of this 250 million-year-old event have always been a hotly contested mystery. Now, some scientists are pointing a finger at massive global warming caused by gigantic amounts of volcanic activity coming from huge fissures in the earth known as the "Siberian Traps."