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    Mass Extinction

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    Brenner Celegans
    The document discusses mass extinction events throughout Earth's history. It defines mass extinction as a substantial increase in extinction suffered by widespread taxa over a short period, resulting in a decline in diversity. It describes the "Big Five" mass extinctions that occurred in the Ordovician, Late Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, and end-Cretaceous periods. Each mass extinction impacted different groups of organisms and potential causes are explored, including volcanism, climate change, ocean anoxia, and an extraterrestrial impact at the end of the Cretaceous period. The effects of mass extinction on disrupting ecosystems and evolution are also summarized.

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    © All Rights Reserved
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    Mass Extinction

    Uploaded by

    Brenner Celegans
    46 views38 pages
    The document discusses mass extinction events throughout Earth's history. It defines mass extinction as a substantial increase in extinction suffered by widespread taxa over a short period, resulting in a decline in diversity. It describes the "Big Five" mass extinctions that occurred in the Ordovician, Late Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, and end-Cretaceous periods. Each mass extinction impacted different groups of organisms and potential causes are explored, including volcanism, climate change, ocean anoxia, and an extraterrestrial impact at the end of the Cretaceous period. The effects of mass extinction on disrupting ecosystems and evolution are also summarized.

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    Mass extinction

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    The document discusses mass extinction events throughout Earth's history. It defines mass extinction as a substantial increase in extinction suffered by widespread taxa over a short period, resulting in a decline in diversity. It describes the "Big Five" mass extinctions that occurred in the Ordovician, Late Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, and end-Cretaceous periods. Each mass extinction impacted different groups of organisms and potential causes are explored, including volcanism, climate change, ocean anoxia, and an extraterrestrial impact at the end of the Cretaceous period. The effects of mass extinction on disrupting ecosystems and evolution are also summarized.

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    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
    Download as pdf or txt
    46 views38 pages

    Mass Extinction

    Uploaded by

    Brenner Celegans
    The document discusses mass extinction events throughout Earth's history. It defines mass extinction as a substantial increase in extinction suffered by widespread taxa over a short period, resulting in a decline in diversity. It describes the "Big Five" mass extinctions that occurred in the Ordovician, Late Devonian, end-Permian, end-Triassic, and end-Cretaceous periods. Each mass extinction impacted different groups of organisms and potential causes are explored, including volcanism, climate change, ocean anoxia, and an extraterrestrial impact at the end of the Cretaceous period. The effects of mass extinction on disrupting ecosystems and evolution are also summarized.

    Copyright:

    © All Rights Reserved
    Download as PDF, TXT or read online from Scribd
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    of 38

    Mass Extinction

    John Phillips
    (1801-1900)
    Life on the Earth:
    Its Origin and Succession
    (1860)

    http://www.strangescience.net/phillips.htm

    1
    The “rediscovery” of mass
    extinction – the 1980s
    • 1980 – The Alvarez hypothesis
    • 1982 – The “big 5” (Raup and Sepkoski)
    • 1984 – 26 my periodicity (Raup and Sepkoski)

    Mass Extinction

    “… any substantial increase in the amount of extinction


    (i.e., lineage termination) suffered by more than one
    geographically widespread higher taxon during a relatively
    short interval of geologic time, resulting in an at least
    temporary decline in standing diversity.”

    (David Jablonski, 1986)

    2
    The Big 5 Mass Extinctions

    3
    Mass Extinction

    “… any substantial increase in the amount of extinction


    (i.e., lineage termination) suffered by more than one
    geographically widespread higher taxon during a relatively
    short interval of geologic time, resulting in an at least
    temporary decline in standing diversity.”

    (David Jablonski, 1986)

    4
    The end-Ordovician event
    • Victims:
    – trilobites
    – brachiopods
    – corals
    – cephalopods

    End-Ordovician Victims
    Ordovician Trilobite,
    Brachiopods
    and Corals

    5
    The end-Ordovician event
    • Possible causes
    – Climatic cooling due to glaciation
    – Extraterrestrial gamma radiation ??

    6
    7
    The Big 5 Mass Extinctions

    The Late Devonian event


    • Victims:
    – trilobites
    – brachiopods
    – corals
    – cephalopods
    – fish

    8
    Late Devonian Victims
    Devonian Trilobites, Fish,
    Coral, and Brachiopods

    The late Devonian event


    • Possible causes
    – volcanism
    – extraterrestrial impact
    – climatic cooling
    – ocean anoxia

    9
    Possible Devonian Impact Craters

    10
    Manicouagan Crater, Quebec

    The Big 5 Mass Extinctions

    11
    The end-Permian event
    • Victims:
    – trilobites*
    – brachiopods
    – corals*
    – cephalopods
    – fusulinid foraminifera*
    – echinoderms
    • crinoids
    • blastoids*

    12
    End-Permian Victims
    Blastoids, Fusulinids, Trilobites,
    Brachiopods, Corals, Crinoids

    The end-Permian event


    • Possible causes
    – volcanism
    – extraterrestrial impact
    – sea level fall
    – ocean chemistry changes (esp. CO2)
    – “the murder on the Orient Express hypothesis”

    13
    14
    Buckminsterfullerenes
    (“Buckeyballs”)

    science.nasa.gov/headlines/ y2001/ast23feb_1.htm

    15
    The Big 5 Mass Extinctions

    The end-Triassic event


    • Victims:
    – clams
    – ammonoid cephalopods
    – terrestrial reptiles

    16
    End-Triassic Victims
    Bivalves, Therapsids,
    Ammonites, Phytosaurs

    17
    The end-Triassic event
    • Possible causes
    – volcanism
    – extraterrestrial impact
    – ocean anoxia

    18
    Basaltic dike, Bay of Fundy

    The Palisades

    19
    The Big 5 Mass Extinctions

    The end-Cretaceous event


    • Victims:
    – rudistid clams*
    – other clams, snails, echinoids
    – ammonoid cephalopods*
    – marine plankton
    – dinosaurs*
    – flying reptiles*
    – plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs*
    – terrestrial plants

    20
    End-Cretaceous Victims
    Rudist bivalves, foraminifera,
    ammonites, snails, mosasaurs, plesiosaurs,
    dinosaurs, pterosaurs, icthyosaurs

    21
    The end-Cretaceous event
    • Possible causes
    – extraterrestrial impact

    Hypotheses of
    K-T extinction
    prior to 1980

    22
    Walter and Luis
    Alvarez

    The Iridium anomaly

    The K-T Boundary


    Stevns Klint, Denmark

    23
    The K-T Boundary
    Stevns Klint, Denmark

    K-T Boundary in Montana

    24
    Meteor Crater, AZ

    25
    26
    27
    28
    Evidence for impact at the K-T
    • Iridium anomaly (“spike”)
    • Shocked quartz
    • Microtectites/spherules
    • Impact crater
    • Pieces of the asteroid/meteorite (?)
    • Evidence for tsunamis

    Chicxulub

    Teapot Dome, Wyoming


    Shocked Quartz Grains

    29
    The Chicxulub
    Impact Site

    Structure of the Chicxulub Structure

    30
    Drilling Through
    the Chicxulub Structure

    This three-dimensional map of local gravity and magnetic field


    variations around Chicxulub, viewed obliquely from approximately
    60° above the surface looking north, with artificial lighting from the south.
    (Courtesy of V. L. Sharpton, LPI)

    31
    What would the
    effects of a large
    bolide impact be?

    Brazos River, Texas

    32
    33
    Altered tektites from the Chicxulub impact deposited at Dogie Creek,
    Wyoming. The scale bar shows millimeters.

    K-T Volcanism

    The Deccan Traps

    34
    The Effects of Mass Extinction

    35
    Dinosaur Valley State Park, Glen Rose, TX

    36
    So What?
    • Mass extinctions are unusual, but have
    occurred multiple times in Earth history.
    • They are different from “background
    extinction”, which occurs all the time.
    • Mass extinctions always have large effects.
    • Those effects are unpredictable.
    • If a mass extinction is large enough, it can
    completely disrupt the biosphere
    permanently.

    So What ? (continued)
    • There are probably multiple causes of mass
    extinction.
    • At least one mass extinction (the K-T) was
    caused by extraterrestrial impact.
    • The current episode of mass extinction has
    the potential to disrupt the biosphere in
    major and unpredictable ways.

    37
    http://www.mpm.edu/reef/reef-extinction-chart.gif

    38

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