Mass Extinction facts

While investigating facts about Mass Extinction Events and Mass Extinction Definition, I found out little known, but curios details like:

There were as many as 60,000,000 (60 million) bisons in 1800. In 1900, there were only 300 left due to mass-hunting. A handful of ranchers saved the species from extinction. Today, the number of bisons is about 500,000. However, only 15 to 25 thousand of these are pure bisons and not hybrids.

how many mass extinctions have there been?

A creature known as a "Tardigrade" has survived all five mass extinction events.

What mass extinctions have occurred?

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 mass extinction ended the mesozoic era. Here are 50 of the best facts about Mass Extinction Timeline and Mass Extinctions On Earth I managed to collect.

what mass extinction are we in?

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.
The Permian Mass Extinction where 96% of species died out. All life on Earth is descended from the 4% that survived.
We are currently in Earth's sixth mass-extinction event, also known as the Holocene extinction
Earth has had 5 mass extinctions, and we are currently in the 6th.
There is a deadly fungus plague spreading around the world that is causing a mass extinction among amphibians.
Jellyfish live in every ocean, and have survived five mass extinctions, for possibly 700 million years or more, despite most of them lacking specialized digestive, osmoregulatory, central nervous, respiratory, or circulatory systems.
11 years ago a starquake was detected on a star, which, if located within 10 light years of Earth, would have triggered a mass extinction.
The largest ever recorded "starquake" was a 22 on the Richter Scale. Had it occurred within 10 light-years of the Earth; there would have been another mass extinction as a result of the gamma radiation released.
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.

mass extinction facts — What mass extinction ended the paleozoic era?

Why would an asteroid impact cause mass extinction?

You can easily fact check which mass extinction is the most famous and why by examining the linked well-known sources.

The Blight" - a plague that destroyed all plant life in the movie Interstellar - was somewhat based on Raoultella planticola bacterium which in the 1990s was genetically modified to destroy plants and had potential to cause mass extinction

The Horseshoe Crab Has Survived 4 Mass Extinction Events - source

There were 5 mass extinction events on earth, with the extinction of dinosaurs not even being the largest. - source

The Permian mass extinction (also known as the Great Dying) which wiped out 96% of all living species on Earth about 252 million years ago. All living species alive today descended from the surviving 4%.

When was the last mass extinction?

Consuming alcohol may have been important to our evolutionary ancestors' survival. As trees died during a mass extinction 10mya, rotting fruit became a more dependable resource for newly terrestrial apes. At that time, an enzyme better able to digest dietary ethanol emerges.

How many mass extinctions?

of the Wilkes Land Crater, at its center is a mass so large under the ice on the south pole that it changes the earths gravity. This crater is almost 3 times larger than Chicxulub crater and matches the time of the "great dying" a loss of 96% of all marine animals to extinction.

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.

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.

When is the next mass extinction?

The now debunked Nemesis Star Theory postulating Sun has a twin Death star, to explain periodic mass extinctions. It purportedly sent objects in outer solar system in a collision course with the earth. In 2016 a study showed the Nemesis may have existed, but melted away billions of years ago.

Tardigrades, a water-dwelling, segmented micro-animals,can withstand temperatures from just above absolute zero to well above the boiling point of water, and the vacuum of outer space. They also survived five mass extinction.

The Earth has underwent 5 mass extinction events, one of which wiped out 90% to 96% of all species. Another may have been caused by a gamma ray burst.

Fossils place the earliest penguin relative at some 60 million years ago, meaning an ancestor of the birds we see today survived the mass extinction of the dinosaurs. Also, all but 2 species of penguins mate in groups of thousands, that's right, penguins are orgy animals.

One of the prevailing theories for the cause of the Ordovician–Silurian mass extinction is a gamma ray burst which struck the planet and killed almost all life on Earth.

How did mammals survive this mass extinction?

The Devonian "age of fish" and one of the worst mass extinctions the earth has ever endured. Marine animals suffered a catastrophic mass extinction where they may have literally asphyxiated.

Lystrosaurus was the most dominant land vertebrate genus ever. During the P.-T. Mass Extinction many predators and other herbivores went extinct. Without competition it could thrive and fossil records suggest that in the early Triassic 95% of all terrestrial vertebrates were Lystrosaurus.

In 600 million years, the Sun's increasing luminosity will begin to disrupt the carbonate–silicate cycle thus allowing plants that utilize C3 photosynthesis to completely die off and triggering a mass extinction.

Hypercanes are a hypothetical class of extreme tropical cyclone that could cover the size of North America and could cause mass extinction.

We are currently in the sixth mass extinction and the leading cause is areas being used for meat and dairy production. If humanity stopped consuming it 75% of all land used for agriculture would be freed, an area as big as US, China, EU and Australia combined, and still have enough food.

Wilkes Land Crater in Antarctica is a 300 mile wide crater that was formed by a 30 mile wide asteroid. Perhaps formed with the 125 mile wide Bedout crater in Australia. Which may have lead to The Great Dying; the worst mass extinction in Earth's history.

Over 150 species go extinct every single day, which is 1000 times the natural rate, leading scientiests to believe we are in the middle of (and the cause of) earth's sixth mass extinction.

Major study confirms that Earth is currently witnessing the start of a mass extinction event the likes of which have not been seen for at least 65 million years. It is being precipitated by human actions over past 500 years

The P-T Extinction, AKA "The Great Dying", was the only mass extinction of insects

There may be a star dubbed "Nemesis" that would form a binary system with our sun and could be the cause of regular mass extinctions.

There have been 5 mass extinctions in earth's history. A sixth is currently occurring with humanity has the root cause. (source is the book, not the article)

We already had five mass extinctions on planet earth and many scientists believe we are coming to 6th

Over the past 450 million years, life on Earth has been devastated by five mass extinction events, but some geologists think there was a sixth mass extinction.

The Permian Period ended in a mass extinction even worse then the one at the end of the Cretaceous.

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about Mass Extinction. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is Mass Extinction so important!