Week 12 Vocab: Dinosaur Extinction

Extant

Species that is currently alive.

Extinct

Species of which every single individual has been wiped out.

End Cretaceous Mass Extinction

Last of the big five mass extinctions. Generally thought to have resulted primarily from a huge meteorite impact; an estimated 75% of animal and plant species went extinct, including all non-avian
dinosaurs.

Mass extinction

A sudden and global loss of significant numbers of species.

End Ordivician Mass Extinction

One of the big five mass extinctions. Affected only marine organisms.

End Permian Mass Extinction

Largest of the big five mass extinctions. Affected marine invertebrates, insects, synapsids and anapsids.

Late Devonian Mass Extinction

One of the big five mass extinctions. Largely affected marine organisms, but also some early vertebrate clades.

Iridium

An element that is rare on Earth but common in meteorites.

Tektites

Earthly debris that was superheated by a meteorite impact and cooled to form a natural glass.

Shocked Quartz

Quartz whose internal structure has deformed due to intense pressure; known to be produced from the shockwaves of atomic blasts and meteorite impacts.

Cenotes

Sinkhole formed from the collapse of limestone; a circular arrangement of these mark the rim of the Chixulub crater.

Champsosaurs

Group of semi-aquatic diapsids with elongated snouts; lived during the Middle Jurassic to Miocene.

Chixulub impactor

The meteor that formed the Chixulub crater; estimated to have been at least 10 kilometres in diameter.

Deccan Traps

A large deposit of volcanic rocks in India; formed from massive volcanic eruptions 60 to 68 million years ago.

Meteor

The visible light streak from a meteoroid entering Earth's atmosphere.

Meteorite

Pieces of debris that originated in outer space and that survive an impact with Earth.

Non-avian dinosaurs

All dinosaurs except for birds.

Supernova

A highly energetic explosion of a star.

Yucatan Peninsula

Peninsula in southeast Mexico; separates the Gulf of Mexico from the Caribbean Sea.