Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event

Epic card · No. 11464

The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, formerly known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction event, was a major mass extinction of three-quarters (75%) of the plant and animal species on Earth which occurred around 66 million years ago. The event caused the extinction of all the non-avian dinosaurs and most other tetrapods weighing more than 25 kg (55 lb), excepting some ectothermic species such as sea turtles and crocodilians. It marked the ends of both the Cretaceous period and the Mesozoic era, and logged the beginning of the current geological era, the Cenozoic era. In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary or K–T boundary, which can be found throughout the world in marine and terrestrial rocks. The boundary clay shows unusually high levels of the metal iridium, which is more common in asteroids than in the Earth's crust. It is generally thought that the K–Pg extinction resulted from the impact of a massive...

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