Mass Extinction - 1421 Words

Extinction is the end of an organism or group of taxa. Extinctions occur when a species becomes unfit for survival in its natural habitat usually to be replaced by another, better-suited species. An organism becomes ill-suited for survival because its environment is changed or because its relationship to other organisms is altered as stated from Credo Reference. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of that particular species. Mass extinctions, however, are rare events that only happen every few million years. Only recently have these events been recorded and scientist have become alarmed at these recent extinctions. Most extinctions aren’t even documented and some predict that most of†¦show more content†¦They believe that a large asteroid was the cause of Cretaceous’ mass extinction. A large crater was found in the Caribbean Sea near the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico, which is about 65 million years old. (Campe ll) A large impact from an asteroid like this would cause global darkness from the amounts of dust sent into the air. This dust would stop photosynthesis for plants which in all would affect every source of live in the area (Thomas). This darkness would also cause the area to cool which could also kill off organisms. Another would be an impact from a comet, such as the comet that exploded above southeastern Siberia in 1908 (Thomas). The last factor is a Supernova explosion, which isn’t the case for earth since there is no evidence that this influenced life on earth. The consequences of mass extinctions affect biological diversity greatly. By removing large numbers species, this could reduce thriving and complex communities. These events are random and effect species greatly, permanently removing species with highly advantageous features and change the course of evolution forever. Whenever extinctions occur, a trickledown effect can occur. An example of this could be how a certain plant may go extinct, and a worm eats that plant. That worm would eventually die out because of the food source being gone. A bird would also be affected by this since it can’t eat that worm which is his only food source. The fossil record shows that it typically takes 5 to 19 millionShow MoreRelatedMass Extinction And Its Effects On The World Essay1427 Words   |  6 Pages Earth is currently going thru its sixth mass extinction. This past decade earth has been going thru the worst loss of species since the dinosaurs age millions and millions of years ago. Scientists say this is like nothing earth has experienced before. Past mass extinctions have occurred because of natural causes but this mass extinction, humans are to blame. Many people believe that The Earth s sixth mass extinction is already underway. They also believe that climate change or volcanoRead MoreThe Mass Extinction Of Dinosaurs1539 Words   |  7 Pagescourse, is mass extinction. 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