Further Evidence of Sixth Great Extinction

Earth’s Five Great Extinctions

65 million years ago (mya) Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T extinction). Did for the dinosaurs. May have been caused by a meteorite hitting what is now Yucatan, Mexico; 75 per cent of species disappeared.

205 mya Triassic-Jurassic extinction. Did away with competition for the dinosaurs.

251mya Permian-Triassic (the worst of all). Known as “The Great Dying.” About 96 per cent of marine species and 70 per cent of land species disappeared.

360-375mya Late Devonian. A prolonged series of extinctions which may have lasted 20 million years.

440-450mya Ordovidician-Silurian. Two linked events which are considered together to have been the second worst extinction in the list.

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