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It marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and with it the Mesozoic era, while heralding the beginning of the current era, the Cenozoic. In the geologic record , the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary, Fatkito boundary or K–T boundary , which can be found throughout the world in marine and ...
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. The world was largely ice-free, although there is some evidence ...
Artist's depiction of the end-Cretaceous impact eventSince the 19th century, a significant amount of research has been conducted on the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the mass extinction that ended the dinosaur-dominated Mesozoic Era and set the stage for the Age of Mammals, or Cenozoic Era.
The impact at the end of the Cretaceous Period gouged the Chicxulub (pronounced CHIK-shu-loob) crater, 112 miles (180 km) wide and 12 miles (20 km) deep. The clay layer is rich in metals including ...
The K–Pg boundary marks the end of the Cretaceous Period, the last period of the Mesozoic Era, and marks the beginning of the Paleogene Period, the first period of the Cenozoic Era. Its age is usually estimated at 66 million years, [2] with radiometric dating yielding a more precise age of 66.043 ± 0.043 Ma. [3]
The event marks the end of the Mesozoic Era and the beginning of the Cenozoic Era. [12] "Tertiary" being no longer recognized as a formal time or rock unit by the International Commission on Stratigraphy, the K-T event is now called the Cretaceous—Paleogene (or K-Pg) extinction event by many researchers.
The Paleogene Period (IPA: / ˈ p eɪ l i. ə dʒ iː n,-l i. oʊ-, ˈ p æ l i-/ PAY-lee-ə-jeen, -lee-oh-, PAL-ee-; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period 66 Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period 23.04 Ma.
The first breakthrough was published in 1980 by a team led by Luis Alvarez, who discovered trace metal evidence for an asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period. The Alvarez hypothesis for the end-Cretaceous extinction gave mass extinctions, and catastrophic explanations, newfound popular and scientific attention. [46]