Major mass extinctions in the Phanerozoic Eon occurred during
abrupt global climate changes accompanied by environmental destruction
driven by large volcanic eruptions and projectile impacts. Relationships
between land temperature anomalies and terrestrial animal extinctions, as
well as the difference in response between marine and terrestrial animals to
abrupt climate changes in the Phanerozoic, have not been quantitatively
evaluated. My analyses show that the magnitude of major extinctions in
marine invertebrates and that of terrestrial tetrapods correlate well with
the coincidental anomaly of global and habitat surface temperatures during
biotic crises, respectively, regardless of the difference between warming
and cooling (correlation coefficient R=0.92–0.95). The loss of more than
35 % of marine genera and 60 % of marine species corresponding to the so-called “big five” major mass extinctions correlates with a >7 ∘C global cooling and a 7–9 ∘C global warming for
marine animals and a >7 ∘C global cooling and a
>∼7 ∘C global warming for terrestrial
tetrapods, accompanied by ±1 ∘C error in the temperature
anomalies as the global average, although the amount of terrestrial data is
small. These relationships indicate that (i) abrupt changes in climate and
environment associated with high-energy input by volcanism and impact relate
to the magnitude of mass extinctions and (ii) the future anthropogenic
extinction magnitude will not reach the major mass extinction magnitude
when the extinction magnitude parallelly changes with the global surface
temperature anomaly. In the linear relationship, I found lower tolerance in
terrestrial tetrapods than in marine animals for the same global
warming events and a higher sensitivity of marine animals to the same
habitat temperature change than terrestrial animals. These phenomena fit with
the ongoing extinctions.</p
