The next mass extinction lasted a while—about 20 million years—and started about 380 million years ago in the late Devonian period near the Devonian-Carboniferous transition. It seems there were a number—the number is uncertain, but suggestions vary from three to seven—of pulsed extinctions, each lasting about a few million years. This event hit marine life hard too, killing a significant fraction of species that lived in the oceans. Insects, plants, and early proto-amphibians survived on land, though extinctions were rampant there as well.
