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It was the largest of the five major mass extinctions in Earth's history—well before the dinosaur-killer 66 million years ago.
這是地球有史以來5次大滅絕中最大的一次—當然，6600萬年后還是發生了恐龍滅絕。
What's called the End Permian extinction, 252 million years ago, wiped out 96 percent of aquatic species and 70 percent of species on land.
它被稱為二疊紀末大滅絕，2億5千2百萬年前96%的水生及70%的陸生生物全部慘遭滅絕。
Scientists have been trying to gauge the time frame of the extinction, in the hopes of determining its causes.
科學家們已嘗試測出這次滅絕發生的時間范圍，希望能找到其中原因。
Now researchers say it's the fastest mass extinction known.
現今研究人員們稱這是迄今為止發生最快的滅絕事件。
Using new tools and models—including a fresh analysis of rock formations in China—the researchers determined that the extinction took only about 60,000 years.
通過使用新型工具和模型—包括中國在內的一項最先進的巖石形成分析—研究人員們確定了該滅絕事件發生持續時間只有6萬年。
That's incredibly quick by geological standards, and is more than 10 times faster than previous estimates.
按地質學標準衡量的話這是十分快的速度，并且比之前任何估計的時間快了10倍以上。
The report is in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
該報告已在《國家科學研究進展》雜志上發表。
Study author Samuel Bowring from M.I.T. says they can't yet compare the speed of the previous extinction to the extinction rates caused by human activities today.
此項研究的作者來自于麻省理工學院的薩穆埃爾博文稱他們仍不能將之前滅絕事件發生的速度與人類現今的活動導致的物種滅亡速度相比較。
But, he says, their research is starting to help reveal how past environmental changes that influenced extinctions—such as levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere—compare to the changes in those levels seen today.
但他還表示這項研究有助于揭示過去環境的變化如何影響物種的生存和滅亡—比如大氣中的二氧化碳含量—對比今天我們看到的物種滅亡情況和以前發生的滅亡情況來研究環境影響起到的作用。
In the midst of what many call the sixth extinction.
如今我們正處于許多人稱之為第6次滅絕活動的中期。
