Ward, inspired by the Alvarez Asteroid Impact Hypothesis, sought to make a name for himself here in these ominous layers between the reigns of the fallen gorgonopsids and the surviving Lystrosaurus. He was after the debris from a catastrophic asteroid collision that could explain the devastation. He hunted for a layer of iridium, bits of fallout ejecta—anything to explain the sudden death of the biosphere. But he couldn’t find it. What Ward and others found instead at the end of the Permian was a wild swing in the carbon cycle.
