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List of extinction events
An extinction event is a relatively fast drop in the number of species living on Earth. It occurs when the rate of extinction increases more than the rate of speciation. This is a list of the largest. Major extinction events are important to both geology and evolution.[1][2][3]
The Phanerozoic

There are five major extinction events in the Phanerozoic eon, and many smaller events.[3] In order of time, latest first:
1. K/T extinction event. The Cretaceous/Tertiary extinction event ended the Mesozoic era and started the Cainozoic era.[4]
2. End–Triassic extinction event.[5][6]
3. P/Tr extinction event. The Permian/Triassic extinction event ended the Palaeozoic era and started the Mesozoic era.[7][8]
4. Late Devonian extinctions, at the Frasnian/Famennian junction.[9]
5. End–Ordovician extinction event. After a series of lesser events, the end-Ordovician extinction resulted in an estimated 84% species loss.[10]
Lesser Phanerozoic extinctions
Other extinction events in the Phanerozoic also had significant impact on the evolution of the biota.
- Eocene–Oligocene transition. From the middle of the Eocene to early in the Oligocene there were a number of events. The climate became much cooler, ice formed on Antarctica, and there was a turnover in aquatic and terrestrial groups.[11]
- Vendian/Cambrian extinction event. Extinctions have been claimed for three groups: the acritarchs, trace fossils, and the famous Ediacaran fossils. Not much is known about this event.
References
- ↑ Huggett, Richard J. 1997. Catastrophism. new ed. Verso.
- ↑ Elewa A.M.T. (ed) 2008. Mass extinctions. Springer, Berlin.
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 Hallam A. and Wignall P.B. 1997. Mass extinctions and their aftermath. Oxford.
- ↑ MacLeod N. (1997). "The Cretaceous–Tertiary biotic transition". Journal of the Geological Society 154 (2): 265–292. . http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_qa3721/is_199703/ai_n8738406/print.
- ↑ Benton M.J. 1991. What really happened in the Late Triassic? Historical biology 5, 263–278.
- ↑ Benton M.J. 1995. Diversification and extinction in the history of life. Science 268, 52–58.
- ↑ Benton M.J. 2005. When life nearly died: the greatest mass extinction of all time. Thames & Hudson, London. isbn=978-0500285732
- ↑ Erwin DH 1993. The great Paleozoic crisis; life and death in the Permian Columbia, N.Y. isbn=0231074670
- ↑ McGhee, George R. Jr 1996. The Late Devonian mass extinction: the Frasnian/Famennian crisis. Columbia, N.Y. ISBN 0231075049
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- ↑ Jablonski D. 1994. Extinctions in the fossil record. Phil Trans Roy Soc B344, 11–17.
- ↑ Prothero, Donald 1994. The Eocene–Oligocene transition: paradise lost. Columbia University Press, New York. ISBN 0-231-08091-3
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