Extinction events

For 16 years, scientists wondered just what had happened with corals in the Florida Keys. In this time period, over half of the corals had perished. They later discovered that the greatest decline was in elkhorn coral. Finally, research showed that the massive coral disappearances were caused by a disease by the name of white pox. The scientists have solved the elkhorn coral mystery using the scientific method - by making observations, conducting experiments, and drawing conclusions. Initially,…

Almost 4.5 billion years ago, the Earth, newly formed, had possibly the hottest climate in the planet’s extensive past. Temperatures were scorching, enough to liquefy rocks. As radioactive elements located in Earth’s core decay, they generate heat and pressure shoving molten rock toward Earth’s surface. Along with bringing molten rock to the surface, volcanoes also released heat and emitted carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, initiating the greenhouse effect which leads on to global warming.…

Earth, mass extinctions of unimaginable death scale almost wiped out most of the life on the planet. The last event occurred 65 million years ago when Earth was impacted by an asteroid killing the dinosaurs and other organisms (70 per cent of the species). The deadliest of these extinction events happened more than 252 million years ago. The event is known as the Permian-Triassic Extinction Event or the “Great Dying” that killed around 90 per cent of all species on Earth. This event was caused…

another, without the other they could not occur. If the extinction of the dinosaurs was gradually over millions of years “both process probably played a role”(DinoBuzz). Most scientists do agree that an asteroid was a factor, it’s also acknowledged thaDinosaurs roamed the earth for 163 million years.(Dinosaur Worlds). They thrived as one of the most successful groups of animals in the history of life on land(PBS). Then, 66 million years ago, the last group of dinosaurs disappeared forever;…

The Permian-Triassic extinction is seen as one of the largest mass extinction in the history of life. According to the McGraw-Hill Dictionary (2003) it can be defined as a mass extinction event marking the division between the Permian Period and the Triassic Period as well as the border between the Palaeozoic and Mesozoic eras. It is estimated to have triggered the extinction of 90% or more of all ocean species, approximately 70% of land vertebrates, and significant extinctions of plants and…

Five extinctions of Earth and Who will be Next? The Earth we live on now is drastically different from how it was millions of years ago. The Earth has gone through many changes and events though time. There are five major events in history that have changed the world. Without these five mass extinctions who knows what Earth would have looked like, and if humans would even be alive. In the ordovician period 439 million years ago there was a mass extinction that wiped out 89% of life on Earth.…

Sixth Extinction is a book all about the fact that the earth as we know it has proceeded through 5 “waves” of mass extinctions, and is currently in the middle of yet another wave of mass extinction (the sixth). These “unnatural” occurrences have displayed shocking changes to the variety of species on the globe, hence the title: “The Sixth Extinction, An Unnatural History.” 2. What gave people the idea that organisms may have gone extinct because of catastrophes? The term extinction…

The Sixth Extinction: An Unnatural History is by Elizabeth Kolbert. Kolbert is an American journalist, observer, author, and staff writer at The New Yorker. The Sixth Extinction won the Pulitzer Prize in 2015; I chose this nonfiction book because I hadn’t heard of the concept of a sixth extinction. I had previously learned of multiple extinctions that occurred in the Cretaceous, Ordovician, Permian, and Triassic-Jurassic periods, but I became curious just by the thought of what Kolbert meant by…

unexpected events happen that made the planet earth to transform radically. This event is known as the Permian Triassic Mass Extinction or also called by many the Great Dying. This mass extinction is known as the worst extinction comparing them to the Ordovician, Devonian and the Cretaceous Extinction. Some individuals are not award that the Permian –Triassic are two forming boundary between the end of the Permian and the beginning of the Triassic period. The Permian-Triassic Extinction almost…

history there have been five Mass Extinctions, a global event where at least 75% of the life on Earth dies. In most of these events the only life form to survive are bacteria, or other small organisms that can hide from the destructive force that wipes out everything else. The Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) is the most recent and most famous Mass Extinction, taking place 65 million years ago. The K/T is the event in which the dinosaurs died in. The cause of this event is debated, however it is widely…