Also known as the K-Pg extinction, a mass extinction of three quarters or more of Earth's plant and animal species occurring about 66 million years ago at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods. It is primarily attributed to the impact of a large asteroid that formed the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula, which devastated the global environment through a lingering impact winter that halted photosynthesis in plants and plankton. The extinction ended the age of the non-avian dinosaurs and closed the Mesozoic era, opening ecological space that allowed mammals and birds to diversify through the following Cenozoic.
Facts
Magnitude or Scale75 percent or more of all plant and animal species became extinct, including all non-avian dinosaurs. 1 LocationGlobal, with the Chicxulub impact crater on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula identified as the primary cause. 1 Cross-Tradition Connections
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