Mass

Extinctions
 What’s a mass extinction?
• a sharp decrease in the
number of species in a
relatively short period of time.
•process in which a huge
numbers of species die out
suddenly. 
How many mass extinctions have
there been?
 The
Ordovician-Silurian Extinction
• Caused by a drop in sea level as glaciers
formed, then by rising sea levels as
glaciers melted.
• Glaciation- in combination with the
continental drift of Gondwana over the
North Pole
• Killed about 25% of marine families
• Killed 60% of marine genera
Late Devonian extinction
• Second mass extinction
• Also called as Global Ice age
• First appearance of shark and bony fish
• First sign of amphibians, insects and the first true
land plants
• About 22% of marine families were killed
• About 57% of the genera were killed
• Suggested that a asteroid impact was the prime
cause
Permian-Triassic extinction
• Informally called the “Great Dying”
• It was the most severe extinction
• 96% of all marine species were killed
• 70% of terrestrial vertebrate were
killed
• the extinction took a few million
years
• Worst – wiping out 95% of planet
species
• Formation of super continent
Unclear cause:
•Most likely due to volcanic
eruption, ( Siberia )
•an asteroid impact
•or a near by super nova.
•Sea level fall
•Decrease in oxygen levels and
increase in carbon dioxide
 End Triassic extinction

Power Point Template

• caused by massive floods or lava erupting
from central Atlantic province – an event
that triggered the opening of the Atlantic
Ocean
• Break up of Supercontinent Pangae
• The volcanism may have led to deadly
global warming
• 22% of Marine families
• 52% of marine genera
• Vertebrate deaths unknown
 Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction

http://karinahall.txc.net.au/MoonExtinctionCycle/comet4a.jpg
  Abundant life, little diversity
 First appearance of dinosaurs, mammals,
pterosaurs,frogs and turtle
 Possible explanation is the great meteorite
impact approximately 66 million years ago.
Marked one of the largest death rates of
species recorded in the fossil record.

 77% of all living species were killed off.

http://www.dinochick.com/Places%20Visited/NMMNH%20dead%20rexy1.JPG
• The first and the most favored theory is
that an asteroid hit somewhere in the golf
of Mexico in the Yucatan Peninsula 65
million years ago. The Asteroid impact is
site is called the Chixclub and is
approximately 200 Kilometers across
making the asteroid itself about 9 miles
wide

http://rst.gsfc.nasa.gov/Sect18/originals/Fig18_17.jpg
 • Volcanic eruptions have also been
theorized to have killed of the dinosaurs.
When volcanoes erupt they send clouds of
dust, sulfuric acid, and poisonous gas that
would have made it impossible to breath.
This would result in the blocking of
sunlight and a severe climate change.
This would have been nearly impossible to
survive in this environment

http://education.ed.pacificu.edu/sweb/gutierrez/volcano/Volcano.jpg
• Which do you think killed the dinosaurs????

http://webs.wichita.edu/depttools/depttoolsmemberfiles/accomp/question_mark
%20(WinCE).jpg
The sixth mass extinction?
• This extinction is referred to as the
Holocene extinction. This is named
after what geologists call the period we as
humans have been in. The immense
amount of extinction during this period of
plants and mammals has constituted is as
a mass extinction to many scientists. The
extinctions include birds, mammals,
reptiles, and amphibians.
• What do you think, are we in the midst of
a mass extinction???