What evidence supports the Cretaceous extinction?
There is much evidence in the rock record that supports this hypothesis. A huge crater 180 km (112 miles) in diameter dating to the end of the Cretaceous was discovered buried beneath sediments of the Yucatán Peninsula near Chicxulub, Mexico.
How does mass extinction prove evolution?
By removing so many species from their ecosystems in a short period of time, mass extinctions reduce competition for resources and leave behind many vacant niches, which surviving lineages can evolve into.
How did the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous time influence evolution?
The most studied mass extinction, which marked the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods about 66 million years ago, killed off the nonavian dinosaurs and made room for mammals and birds to rapidly diversify and evolve.
Why was the Cretaceous Tertiary extinction so important for the eventual evolution of humans?
On the land it most famously exterminated the dinosaurs and so made it possible for mammals to become the dominant land vertebrates – and hence paved the way for human evolution.
What evidence supports the asteroid impact hypothesis of the Cretaceous Tertiary mass extinction?
Some evidence supporting the impact is the dent and rings that circle the crater which are found submerged underneath the water in the Gulf of Mexico. More supporting evidence is in the form of elevated iridium levels and shocked quarts.
What role has mass extinction played in animal evolution?
What role has mass extinction played in animal evolution? Mass extinction can remove ecologically dominant groups, paving the way for new or previously minor groups to diversify.
What are the 5 main evidences for evolution?
Five types of evidence for evolution are discussed in this section: ancient organism remains, fossil layers, similarities among organisms alive today, similarities in DNA, and similarities of embryos.
What evidence is most consistent with dinosaurs becoming extinct at the end of the Cretaceous era?
What evidence is most consistent with dinosaurs becoming extinct at the end of the Cretaceous era? No dinosaur fossils are found above the Cretaceous Paleogene boundary.
What are two possible causes of the Cretaceous extinction event?
The Cretaceous/Paleogene (K/Pg) mass extinction coincided with two major global environmental perturbations: heightened volcanism associated with the Deccan Traps and the Chicxulub asteroid impact (Fig. 1A) (4).
What pieces of evidence support the existence of the K PG asteroid?
The impact hypothesis, also known as the Alvarez hypothesis, was bolstered by the discovery of the 180 km (112 mi) Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula in the early 1990s, which provided conclusive evidence that the K–Pg boundary clay represented debris from an asteroid impact.
What is the primary role played by mass extinction events in the history of life on Earth quizlet?
What is the primary role played by mass extinction events in the history of life on Earth? They open up ecological niches and accelerate evolution.
What makes the Cretaceous Period unique?
The Cretaceous Period is biologically significant because it is a major part of the transition from the early life-forms of the Paleozoic Era to the advanced diversity of the current Cenozoic Era. For example, most if not all of the flowering plants (angiosperms) made their first appearance during the Cretaceous.
What is the Cretaceous period known for?
The Cretaceous was a period with a relatively warm climate, resulting in high eustatic sea levels that created numerous shallow inland seas. These oceans and seas were populated with now-extinct marine reptiles, ammonites, and rudists, while dinosaurs continued to dominate on land.
What type of evolution occurs after mass extinction?
As lineages invade different niches and become isolated from one another, they split, regenerating some of the diversity that was wiped out by the mass extinction. The upshot of all these processes is that mass extinctions tend to be followed by periods of rapid diversification and adaptive radiation.
What were the effects of the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction event?
Smaller animals could store food and needed less oxygen; they survived and thrived once the danger passed. Other major catastrophes caused by the impacts included tsunamis, earthquakes, and possibly increased volcanic activity, yielding the devastating results of the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction event.
When did the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction occur?
The most recent of the five events is the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction which took place about 66 million years ago. The Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction is also known by several names including Cretaceous-Tertiary, K-T extinction, or K-Pg extinction.
What animals went extinct during the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction?
The Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction. Of course, everyone knows the land dinosaurs were all casualties of this major mass extinction event, but many other species of birds, mammals, fish, mollusks, pterosaurs, and plesiosaurs, among other groups of animals, also went extinct.
Did mass extinction play a role in evolution?
But mass extinction can also play a creative role in evolution, stimulating the growth of other branches. Tree adapted from Upham, N.S., Esselstyn, J.A., Jetz, W., 2019.