☄️ THE GREAT EXTINCTION
PAGE 1 OF 5 — THE DINOSAUR PARADISE
66 MILLION YEARS AGO...
EARTH WAS A DINOSAUR PARADISE
For 165 million years, dinosaurs ruled every continent on Earth. They came in every shape and size imaginable, from the sparrow-sized Microraptor to the skyscraper-tall Argentinosaurus. The skies belonged to pterosaurs, the oceans to monstrous mosasaurs and plesiosaurs. It was the most successful reign of any animal group in the history of complex life.
⚡ DID YOU KNOW?
Scientists have named over 700 dinosaur species, and thousands more are still buried in rock waiting to be found. Every year, an average of 40 new species are described.
RULERS!
DIVERSITY
🦕 700+ named species discovered so far
🌍 Every continent had its own dinosaurs
🦴 Some weighed 80 tonnes, equal to 15 elephants!
🌍 Every continent had its own dinosaurs
🦴 Some weighed 80 tonnes, equal to 15 elephants!
SEA & SKY
🌊 Mosasaurs, 17m sea monsters, ruled the oceans
🦅 Quetzalcoatlus had a 10m wingspan
🐟 Even fish were enormous: Xiphactinus grew to 6m
🦅 Quetzalcoatlus had a 10m wingspan
🐟 Even fish were enormous: Xiphactinus grew to 6m
PAGE 2 OF 5 — THE ASTEROID IMPACT
CHICXULUB IMPACTOR · 66 MYA
AN ASTEROID 10KM WIDE HITS YUCATAN, MEXICO
Travelling at 20 kilometres per second, the Chicxulub impactor struck what is now Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. The impact released energy equivalent to 1 billion Hiroshima atomic bombs, all within a fraction of a second. The explosion was heard across the entire planet. Rock vaporised instantly into superheated gas that rose into the stratosphere. Within minutes, molten rock was raining back down across North America.
K-BOOM!!!
HOUR 1
🌊 Mega-tsunami waves 300m high flood coastlines
🌋 Magnitude 11+ earthquakes shake every continent
🔥 Wildfires ignite across North America instantly
🌋 Magnitude 11+ earthquakes shake every continent
🔥 Wildfires ignite across North America instantly
WEEK 1
🌑 Soot and ash clouds block the sun globally
❄️ Temperatures plunge 15°C within days
🌿 Photosynthesis stops. Plants start dying
❄️ Temperatures plunge 15°C within days
🌿 Photosynthesis stops. Plants start dying
YEARS LATER
💀 75% of all species on Earth go extinct
🍃 Food chains collapse from the bottom up
☠️ Every non-avian dinosaur is wiped out
🍃 Food chains collapse from the bottom up
☠️ Every non-avian dinosaur is wiped out
PAGE 3 OF 5 — THE KILLING WINTER
ACID RAIN
☔ Sulfur vaporised at impact, turning into sulfuric acid
🌧️ Acid rain strips forests bare worldwide
🌊 Oceans acidify and marine food chains collapse
🌧️ Acid rain strips forests bare worldwide
🌊 Oceans acidify and marine food chains collapse
THE DARKNESS
☀️ Sunlight blocked for 2+ years by soot
🌡️ Impact winter lasts decades in some regions
🌾 Global plant die-off starves every herbivore
🌡️ Impact winter lasts decades in some regions
🌾 Global plant die-off starves every herbivore
THE KILLING WINTER
THE FOOD CHAIN COLLAPSED FROM THE BOTTOM UP
Without sunlight, plants couldn't photosynthesize. Without plants, every herbivore on Earth faced starvation. Without herbivores, every large carnivore including T-Rex had nothing to hunt. The collapse was total and relentless. Even the giant ocean predators starved as plankton died and fish populations crashed. This was not a quick death. It was a years-long slow extinction in the dark.
🌍 SCALE OF DISASTER
The Chicxulub crater is 180km wide and still exists today, buried under Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula. It was discovered in the 1970s by oil company geologists who found it 1km underground beneath the sea floor.
DARKNESS!
PAGE 4 OF 5 — THE SURVIVORS
AGAINST ALL ODDS
SMALL, FLEXIBLE, HUNGRY: THE WINNERS
Not everything died. The animals that survived shared key traits: they were small enough to need very little food, many could burrow underground to avoid the worst temperatures, and most could eat almost anything: seeds, insects, fungi, carrion. The extinction was the ultimate test of adaptability, and the creatures that passed were the ones flexible enough to survive in a broken, darkened world.
SURVIVORS!
BURROWERS
🐭 Small mammals hid underground for warmth
🌱 Seeds stored underground survived the cold
🌿 Burrowers could eat fungi when plants died
🌱 Seeds stored underground survived the cold
🌿 Burrowers could eat fungi when plants died
COLD BLOOD WINS
🐊 Crocodilians survived, can go months without food
🐢 Turtles survived with slow metabolisms and eat anything
🐍 Many snakes and lizards made it through
🐢 Turtles survived with slow metabolisms and eat anything
🐍 Many snakes and lizards made it through
FEATHERS SAVE LIVES
🐦 Small feathered theropods, the early birds, survived
🌾 Could eat seeds that survived buried in soil
✈️ Could migrate to find pockets of surviving food
🌾 Could eat seeds that survived buried in soil
✈️ Could migrate to find pockets of surviving food
PAGE 5 OF 5 — THE LEGACY
THE LEGACY
THE MEEK INHERITED THE EARTH
Tiny rat-sized mammals had spent 100 million years hiding in the shadows of dinosaurs, emerging only at night, never growing larger than a cat. Then, in the blink of a geological eye, their competition was gone. Over the next 10 million years, mammals evolved and diversified explosively, filling every ecological niche the dinosaurs had vacated. From those survivors came whales, horses, elephants, bats, monkeys and eventually you.
🧬 YOU ARE PART OF THIS STORY
Every mammal alive today, including every human on Earth, descended from the tiny survivors of the K-Pg extinction. If that asteroid had missed, mammals might never have had their chance and you wouldn't exist.
MAMMALS!
LIVING DINOSAURS
🐦 Every bird alive today is a living dinosaur
🍗 A chicken is more closely related to T-Rex than T-Rex is to Stegosaurus
🌍 10,000+ bird species: dinosaurs still dominate!
🍗 A chicken is more closely related to T-Rex than T-Rex is to Stegosaurus
🌍 10,000+ bird species: dinosaurs still dominate!
REMEMBER THIS
📌 KEY FACTS
☄️ Asteroid: 10km wide, hit at 20km/s
💥 Energy: 1 billion Hiroshima bombs
💀 Result: 75% of all species extinct
🐭 Winners: small burrowing mammals & birds
🐦 Birds ARE dinosaurs. They never went extinct
💥 Energy: 1 billion Hiroshima bombs
💀 Result: 75% of all species extinct
🐭 Winners: small burrowing mammals & birds
🐦 Birds ARE dinosaurs. They never went extinct
🧠 QUIZ TIME!
THE GREAT EXTINCTION · 5 QUESTIONS
QUESTION 01
How wide was the Chicxulub asteroid that caused the mass extinction?
QUESTION 02
What percentage of all Earth's species went extinct in the K-Pg event?
QUESTION 03
Where did the Chicxulub asteroid land 66 million years ago?
QUESTION 04
Which group of animals survived and eventually evolved into humans' ancestors?
QUESTION 05
Which living animals are actually modern dinosaurs that survived the K-Pg extinction?
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