What’s a mass extinction?

 a sharp decrease in the number of species

in a relatively short period of time.
 There different ways a mass extinction can
occur including…
 Asteroids
 Comets
 Global warming
 Ice age
 And more…
 How many mass extinctions
have there been?

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Ordovician-Silurian
Extinction

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 439 million years ago
 Caused by a drop in sea level as glaciers formed, then by
rising sea levels as glaciers melted.
 Killed about 25% of marine families
 Killed 60% of marine genera

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 Late Devonian extinction

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  About 364 million years ago
 Not clear if it is 2 large mass extinctions or a series
of small extinctions
 About 22% of marine families were killed
 About 57% of the genera were killed
 Suggested that a asteroid impact was the prime
cause

http://www.ecoenquirer.com/global-warming-asteroid.jpg
Permian-Triassic extinction

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  Most likely due to volcanic eruption,
 an asteroid impact
 or a near by super nova.

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  Informally called the “Great Dying”
 Occurred about 251 million years ago
 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
 Normal levels of biodiversity did not
become present until 6 million years
after the end of the Permian
http://www.uhh.hawaii.edu/~csav/gallery/decker/images/Lava_Arch_2.JPG
 End Triassic extinction

Power Point Template

  199 million to 214 million years ago
 caused by massive floods or lava erupting from central
Atlantic province – an event that triggered the opening of the
Atlantic Ocean
 The volcanism may have lead to deadly global warming
 22% of Marine families
 52% of marine genera
 Vertebrate deaths unknown

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 Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction

http://karinahall.txc.net.au/MoonExtinctionCycle/comet4a.jpg
  No one knows exactly how this Mass Extinction happened and
why it happened at such a rapid rate. Scientists have many
theories but it boils down to about one major one and a few
others due to Occoms razor.

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  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
  caused Forest fires to start and ignited volcanic
eruptions all over the glob as well as tidal waves,
severe storms that would eliminated all sunlight. It
would be six months before sunlight would reach
the ground after such a blow. The dinosaurs, even
in their prime, stood no chance without sunlight
and plant life, ending the dinosaurs 165 million
year reign.

http://www.joetourist.ca/hawaii/graphics/951022.jpg
  One of the other theories is that climate
change killed all of the plant eating
dinosaurs due to lack of food from the
climate change. The cretaceous period
was tropical and so were almost 50 percent
of the plants. If the temperature was to
change drastically the plant eater’s food
would slowly dwindle. With the plant eaters
becoming extinct the carnivores would soon
run out of food as well.

http://apod.nasa.gov/apod/image/earth_1_apollo17_big.gif
  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????

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The Big Five

 Ordovician-Silurian extinction - 439

million years ago,
 Late Devonian extinction - 364
million years ago
 Permian-Triassic extinction - 251
million years ago
 End Triassic extinction, - 199 million
to 214 million years ago
 Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction,
about 65 million years ago
 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.

http://sitemaker.umich.edu/section4group1/files/smog.jpg
 This extinction is thought to have started once Homo sapiens started
dispersing outward from Africa on the land bridges, hunting and
gathering was the start of the extinctions induced by man. Today
approximately 1,000 species out of the worlds 10,000 are on the verge
of extinction. There is no conclusive evidence but it is estimated that
since Homo sapiens began hunting and gathering some 500,000 –
1,000,000 species have become extinct, from over hunting,
population, and most importantly pollution.

http://www.exzooberance.com/virtual%20zoo/they%20walk/tiger/Bengal%20T
iger471095.jpg
  What do you think, are we in the midst of a mass
extinction???

http://ircamera.as.arizona.edu/NatSci102/NatSci102/images/endearth4.jpg