Compared to the “Great Dying”, coronavirus looks like a Sunday school picnic. About 70% of terrestrial vertebrates and 96% of marine species were wiped out.

Theories about what happened 252 million years ago include meteor strikes, huge volcanic eruptions and climate change caused by immense releases of underwater methane. But there are many gaps in scientific knowledge.

Now one of them has been filled, thanks to scientific work carried out just off the R715 in the Free State, 20km northwest of the small farming town of Bethulie...