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The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, [a] also known as the K–T extinction, [b] was the mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth [2] [3] approximately 66 million years ago.
Luis Walter Alvarez, left, and his son Walter, right, at the K–T Boundary in Gubbio, Italy, 1981. The Alvarez hypothesis posits that the mass extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs and many other living things during the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event was caused by the impact of a large asteroid on the Earth.
The End Cretaceous extinction, or the K–Pg extinction (formerly K–T extinction) occurred at the Cretaceous (Maastrichtian) – Paleogene transition. [19] The event was formerly called the Cretaceous-Tertiary or K–T extinction or K–T boundary; it is now officially named the Cretaceous–Paleogene (or K–Pg) extinction event.
The climate across the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (K–Pg or formerly the K–T boundary) is very important to geologic time as it marks a catastrophic global extinction event. Numerous theories have been proposed as to why this extinction event happened including an asteroid known as the Chicxulub asteroid, volcanism , or sea level changes.
By the time the Cretaceous-Paleogene, or K/Pg, extinction event was over, about three-quarters of species alive at the time of impact had disappeared forever. ... the study of potential life ...
Paleogene: Eocene–Oligocene extinction event: 33.9 Ma: Multiple causes including global cooling, polar glaciation, falling sea levels, and the Popigai impactor [12] Cretaceous: Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event: 66 Ma Chicxulub impactor; the volcanism which resulted in the formation of the Deccan Traps may have contributed. [13]
The cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event is a subject of much debate amongst researchers. Georges Cuvier's 1812 unpublished version of the skeletal reconstruction of Anoplotherium commune with muscles. Today, the Paleogene mammal is thought to have gone extinct from the Grande Coupure extinction event in western Europe. [84]
The Cretaceous (along with the Mesozoic) ended with the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a large mass extinction in which many groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and large marine reptiles, died out, widely thought to have been caused by the impact of a large asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater in the Gulf of Mexico.