Coronene, mercury, and biomarker data support a link between extinction magnitude and volcanic intensity in the Late Devonian

The Late Devonian biodiversity crisis, one of the big five Phanerozoic diversity depletions, is composed of a series of extinction events broadly coincident with the invasion of land by plants and vertebrates. These extinctions may have been triggered by volcanism, as sedimentary mercury enrichments are associated with the two main extinctions, the Kellwasser and Hangenberg crises. However, the sources of this mercury and its relation to...