Extinction Events facts
While investigating facts about Extinction Events On Earth and Extinction Events In History, I found out little known, but curios details like:
A creature known as a "Tardigrade" has survived all five mass extinction events.
how extinction events happen?
There were four mass extinction events before the one that killed the Dinosaurs. The most severe killed a staggering 97% of all species. All life on Earth today is descended from the 3% that survived.
What are the 5 mass extinction events?
In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what are the 5 major extinction events. Here are 50 of the best facts about Extinction Events Timeline and Extinction Events In Earth History I managed to collect.
what are the 5 extinction events?
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We are currently in Earth's sixth mass-extinction event, also known as the Holocene extinction
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The hoatzin is the last surviving species of a line of birds that diverged from all other birds 64 million years ago, just after the dinosaur extinction event, and that hoatzin chicks have claws on their wings
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Humans are killing off so many species, it's called the Holocene Extinction Event
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The Earths first mass extinction event was caused by the newly formed Oxygen molecule. Known as the Oxygen Holocaust, the event caused the mass extinction of cellular life all over the planet some 2.4 Billion years ago.
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The dinosaur extinction event is marked by a thin layer of sediment all over the world, which contains 160 times as much Iridium as normal - evidence of the global devastation caused by an asteroid impact
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The Horseshoe Crab Has Survived 4 Mass Extinction Events
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There were 5 mass extinction events on earth, with the extinction of dinosaurs not even being the largest.
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Humans have a relatively low level of genetic variation because we are all descendants of ~10,000 humans that survived a massive extinction event ~70,000 years ago. One tribe y'all.
Why does extinction events happen?
You can easily fact check it by examining the linked well-known sources.
Archaebacteria are considered to be one of the earth's oldest forms of life. They survived the extinction events that killed off the dinosaurs.
The Tardigrade has survived all five mass extinction events, can survive in outer space, without food or water AND can be revived after 30 years of being frozen. - source
Trilobites were made extinct approximately 250 million years ago when 90 percent of all of the species on earth were wiped out. This event is referred to as the "Great Dying", or "Permian Extinction". It is not known whether it was an exploding supernova or volcanic eruption that caused the event.
During the Paleocene epoch the world was recovering from the extinction event and mammals were fairly small. It is believed that they were all smaller than 10 kilograms.
When were the mass extinction events?
In the Pleistocene epoch ice ages were frequent, and a major extinction event wiped out several species including Neanderthals. Homo sapiens evolved during this epoch.
How many extinction events?
That, besides the extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs, there has been 4 other Mass Extinction events to occur millions of years apart that would nearly wipe out all life on earth.
There is a star system called WR 104 that is expected to go supernova in a few thousand years. If its gamma ray burst hits the earth the result may be a mass extinction event.
An impact event occurs when an asteroid collides with a planet. They can be devastating enough to cause extinction events.
The super volcano at Lake Toba, which erupted 74,000 years ago and almost drove humanity to extinction; with 10,000 humans surviving the event, and only 2,000 of whom were able to reproduce
There is a bigger volcanic process than super volcanoes called Large Igneous Provinces that appear to have occurred simultaneously with extinction events.