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Why can mass extinctions be seen as times of great opportunity?
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
The end Cretaceous mass extinction 65 million years ago is associated with the end of the dinosaurs. Virtually no large land animals survived. Plants were also affected and tropical marine life was decimated. At this time, the oceans flooded up to 40% of the continents. What would become us now had a chance to flourish. We were very small mammals and we had a lot of land to fill.
Of course the word 'opportunity' is, in this instance, a value-judgement. I would imagine that the organisms that were unable to adapt to the radically changing environments during past extinction waves would not have seen it as an opportune time at all. But, then, one man's death is often another man's bread, and there will always be those able to profit from even the most horrible disasters.
Wiki User
∙ 10y ago
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Why mass extinctions occur and why they often mark divisions of geologic times?
Mass extinctions occur when extreme temperatures happen.https://science.howstuffworks.com/life/evolution/extinction3.htm
What was the outcomes of each of the mass extinctions?
The outcomes of each of the mass extinctions is that animal and/or bacteria die.
Mass extinctions are usually followed by what?
When there are mass extinctions they are usually followed by adaptive radiation and very rapid diversification. The last mass extinctions happened 65 million years ago.
Do scientists believe that extinctions are uncommon?
No, they are fundamental to the process of evolution. Mass extinctions are less common.
What has happened during mass extinctions?
Bad things
What affects have mass extinctions had on the history of life?
biospere
What might have caused mass extinctions?
Ice age
Why do you think most extinction's occur as background extinctions?
Most extinctions occur as background extinctions because they are longer time periods unlike the shorter mass extinctions which there were only two in the Paleozoic era, the Ordovician mass extinction, and the Permian/Triassic extinction in which 95% of all marine animals became extinct
Mass extinctions create conditions that promote?
Adaptive Radiation
What has changed most of the mass extinctions on earth?
climate change
When did organisms suffer the largest mass extinction known?
The most devastating mass extinction occurred in the Late Permian (~250 million years ago).
The fossil record indicates that Earth has experienced?
5 mass extinctions
