mass extinction
The extinction of a large number of species within a relatively short period of geological time, thought to be due to factors such as a catastrophic global event or widespread environmental change that occurs too rapidly for most species to adapt. At least five mass extinctions have been identified in the fossil record, coming at or toward the end of the Ordovician, Devonian, Permian, Triassic, and Cretaceous Periods. The Permian extinction, which took place 245 million years ago, is the largest known mass extinction in the Earth's history, resulting in the extinction of an estimated 90 percent of marine species. In the Cretaceous extinction, 65 million years ago, an estimated 75 percent of species, including the dinosaurs, became extinct, possibly as the result of an asteroid colliding with the Earth. Compare background extinction.
Words nearby mass extinction
mass,
mass affluent,
mass book,
mass card,
mass defect,
mass extinction,
mass hysteria,
mass in,
mass leave,
mass man,
mass media
Cultural definitions for mass extinction
mass extinction
Any of several events in the Earth's past in which large numbers of species (in some cases, up to eighty percent) became extinct.
notes for mass extinction
The most famous mass extinction included the destruction of the
dinosaurs sixty-five million years ago. (
See
Alvarez hypothesis.)