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Where did the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction happen?
Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event, 66 million years ago Roughly 66 million years ago, a miles-wide asteroid slammed into Earth, somewhere near the present-day Yucatán Peninsula. The impact itself killed many living creatures, and it set off a series of events that led to the extinction of most life on the planet.
What happened during the Cretaceous extinction?
Best known for killing off the dinosaurs, the end-Cretaceous mass extinction also caused many other casualties. Ammonoids (marine mollusks), pterosaurs (gliding reptiles), mosasaurs (swimming reptiles), and a host of other plants and animals died out completely or suffered heavy losses.
What era was the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction?
The Cretaceous Period was the last and longest segment of the Mesozoic Era. It lasted approximately 79 million years, from the minor extinction event that closed the Jurassic Period about 145 million years ago to the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction event dated at 66 million years ago.
Where is planet Earth in the Milky Way galaxy?
Orion Arm
Earth is located in one of the spiral arms of the Milky Way (called the Orion Arm) which lies about two-thirds of the way out from the center of the Galaxy. Here we are part of the Solar System – a group of eight planets, as well as numerous comets and asteroids and dwarf planets which orbit the Sun.
What caused Cretaceous Paleogene extinction?
Many scientists believe that the collision of a large asteroid or comet nucleus with Earth triggered the mass extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species near the end of the Cretaceous Period.
What events happened in the Cretaceous period?
During the Cretaceous, accelerated plate collision caused mountains to build along the western margin of North America. As these mountains were rising, the Gulf of Mexico basin subsided, and seawater began to spread northward into the expanding western interior. Marine water also began to flood from the Arctic region.
What caused the Cretaceous Paleogene extinction event?
As originally proposed in 1980 by a team of scientists led by Luis Alvarez and his son Walter, it is now generally thought that the K–Pg extinction was caused by the impact of a massive comet or asteroid 10 to 15 km (6 to 9 mi) wide, 66 million years ago, which devastated the global environment, mainly through a …
Where were the continents during the Cretaceous period?
The Cretaceous Period began with Earth’s land assembled essentially into two continents, Laurasia in the north and Gondwana in the south. These were almost completely separated by the equatorial Tethys seaway, and the various segments of Laurasia and Gondwana had already started to rift apart.
Why did the Cretaceous Tertiary extinction?
The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction event, or the K-T event, is the name given to the die-off of the dinosaurs and other species that took place some 65.5 million years ago. For many years, paleontologists believed this event was caused by climate and geological changes that interrupted the dinosaurs’ food supply.
Where is the earth located in the solar system?
In our solar system, Earth is the third planet from the Sun. Closer to the Sun are Mercury and Venus. Further from the Sun are Mars, Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, and Neptune. The Earth, the Sun, and all the planets are held together by gravity, the same force that pulls you towards the Earth.