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What group of animals might have been driven to extinction by an asteroid impact 65 million years ago?
Wiki User
∙ 11y ago
Around 65 million years ago, something unusual happened on our planet--and we can see it in the fossil record. Fossils that are abundant in earlier rock layers are simply not present in later rock layers. A wide range of animals and plants suddenly died out, from tiny marine organisms to large dinosaurs.
Species go extinct all the time. Scientists estimate that at least 99.9 percent of all species of plants and animals that ever lived are now extinct. So the demise of dinosaurs like T. rex and Triceratops some 65 million years ago wouldn't be especially noteworthy--except for the fact that around 50 percent of all plants and animals alive at the same time also died out in what scientists call a mass extinction.
A Brief History of Earth
Mass extinctions--when at least half of all species die out in a relatively short time--have happened only a handful of times over the course of our planet's history. The largest mass extinction event occurred around 250 million years ago, when perhaps 95 percent of all species went extinct.
Top Five Extinctions
Cambrian Explosion:
Early life-forms began to flourish. (540 million years ago)
Ordovician-silurian Extinction:
Small marine organisms died out. (440 mya)
Devonian Extinction:
Many tropical marine species went extinct. (365 mya)
Permian-triassic Extinction:
The largest mass extinction event in Earth's history affected a range of species, including many vertebrates. (250 mya)
Triassic-jurassic Extinction:
The extinction of other vertebrate species on land allowed dinosaurs to flourish. (210 mya)
Cretaceous-tertiary Extinction: (65.5 mya)
The Name Game
Scientists refer to the major extinction that wiped out nonavian dinosaurs as the K-T extinction, because it happened at the end of the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary period. Why not C-T? Geologists use "K" as a shorthand for Cretaceous. "C" is shorthand for an earlier period, the Cambrian.
Dawn of a New Age
The extinction that occurred 65 million years ago wiped out some 50 percent of plants and animals. The event is so striking that it signals a major turning point in Earth's history, marking the end of the geologic period known as the Cretaceous and the beginning of the Tertiary period.
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
Wiki User
∙ 11y agoThere were many groups of animal species that were wiped out by the asteroid impact. These include, but are not limited to, dinosaurs, pterosaurs (flying reptiles), plesiosaurs (marine reptiles), mosasaurs (huge marine lizards), ammonites (a type of mollusk), and many, many others.
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How cockroachs interact with mankind?
Roaches love us: we've increased their habitat, and we supply them with extra food. Unlike the animals that we've driven toward extinction, roaches are having a renaissance.
What are the original sources of energy in you bodies?
in animals look to ATP to ADP conversion. The reverse occures in mitocondria and that's driven by burning Hydrogen (from sugars) in oxygen.
Does natural selection deal with only plants?
No, all life evolves. Bacteria evolve, viruses evolve, protists evolve, plants evolve, fungi evolve and animals evolve. Evolution is driven by Natural Selection. So, no. The evolution of all life on Earth is driven by Natural Selection: all bacteria, plants, animals, mammals, fish, insects, biochemical pathways, behaviours et cetera evolve by Natural Selection.
What are all-stars driven by?
Stars are driven by Nuclear Fusion.
What are the distinguishing elements of a process-driven quality requirement?
elements of a process-driven quality requirement
Why were Texas Longhorns nearly driven to extinction?
Because so many people hunt them they are about to be driven towards extinction.
Why do you think fermenters have not been driven to extinction by competition with aerobes?
They have not been driven to extinction because there are many other environments that they can exist in.
How cockroachs interact with mankind?
Roaches love us: we've increased their habitat, and we supply them with extra food. Unlike the animals that we've driven toward extinction, roaches are having a renaissance.
Why have some endangered aquatic species already become extinct?
Because of our pollution, and how we hunt them as well of lack of food source because of again us , as well their predators may have grown in population again helping drive the species to extinction. and with our growing population only more and more animals as well as aquatic animals will be driven to extinction
What plants and animals lived in neanderthal time?
All the wild animals and plants were the same as today, what was missing were the domesticated versions (wolves but not dogs, grasses but not wheat, corn or rice). What is now missing is those animals driven to extinction (dodos, mammoths, passenger pigeons, etc).
What happenend to the dodo bird?
It was driven to extinction by a combination of hunting, predation by non native animals introduced by arriving humans, & destruction of habitat. The last creditable sightings fix the disappearance of the Dodo somewhere between 1688 to 1715
what happen to the dodo bird?
It was driven to extinction by a combination of hunting, predation by non native animals introduced by arriving humans, & destruction of habitat. The last creditable sightings fix the disappearance of the Dodo somewhere between 1688 to 1715
Whats are the causes of extinction?
An animal might be hunted into extinction. Some of the last Australian thylacines were shot to death, though the very last one probably died in a zoo. The passenger pigeon was hunted into extinction. Disease can also wipe out a species. The Tasmanian devils are threated by a face cancer. An asteroid (or comet) impact may have wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. If an animal's food source becomes extinct, or the animal is driven from a key food source, that can cause it to become extinct. Competition for a food source can also lead to extinction, for example, if some other species devours all the food. It was once thought that the dinosaurs may have become extinct because little mammals ate all their eggs. Invasive species may step up competition for resources, driving native species to extinction. Also, extinction may be caused by a combination of these factors.
Who or what is responsible for Bengals tigers for being in danger?
Bengal tigers are being driven towards extinction because of destruction of their habitat by humans. Humans are the primary reason for every extinction within the last 500 years.
How many cars are driven a day in Australia?
10 million(approximately)
What has brought the Indian tiger to the brink of extinction?
I believe a combined measure of poaching and habitat loss has driven the Indian tiger to become endangered.
Could humans become extinct?
There is at least one instance were you can directly account for many extinction by one cause, MAN. As a species we are very adapt at killing everything that we do not value or care enough about. We kill many species a year and also have driven many more to the brink of extinction. Some of which are beyond saving, they are dead animals walking as it were. There is possibly another example where 1 event possibly lead to a chain reaction which cause the worst extinction event in Earths history, the Permian-Triassic extinction or "The Great Dying". The theory although controversial explains exactly all the evidence we can see today. About 251 million years ago it is believed an asteroid about the same size of the Chicxulub Asteroid struck earth just of the coast of Australia. It has been suggested that the shock waves from this asteroid concentrated on the opposite side of the planet at the antipodal point causing a huge volcanic eruption in Siberia, the so called Siberian Traps. Gases from this volcanic eruption caused a large greenhouse effect and warmed the planet. This increase in temperature in turn stopped the ocean conveyor (a set of currents that circumnavigate the oceans spreading warmth from the equator to the poles and also bringing oxygen to the deep ocean). Once the ocean conveyor had stopped the deep oceans suffered anoxia. This allowed anaerobic bacteria to flourish. One by product of these bacteria is an extremely poisonous gas called Hydrogen Sulphide. This gas was formed in such quantities that it bubbled out of the ocean and killed anything it came in contact with. An example of this anoxic state and hydrogen sulphide making bacteria can be found in Green Lake in New York State.
