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Chapter 13 - The Cretaceous Extinction

The End of the Age of Dinosaurs

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  29 April 2025

Peter Copeland  and
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Peter Copeland
Affiliation:
University of Houston
Janok P. Bhattacharya
Affiliation:
McMaster University, Ontario
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Summary

This chapter is specifically focused on the events that occurred at the boundary between the Mesozoic and Cenozoic eras, commonly referred to as the K–Pg extinction because it marks the boundary between the Cretaceous (K) and Paleogene (Pg) geologic periods. It is the most recent of the five mass extinctions introduced in Chapter 9 and has been a topic of considerable public interest because it also marks the end of the “Age of Dinosaurs” (see Chapter 12). The two main hypotheses for the cause of the extinction center on a giant asteroid impact and massive volcanic eruptions in India.

Type
Chapter
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Earth History
Stories of Our Geological Past
 , pp. 258 - 273
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2025

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References

Further Reading and References

Alvarez, W., 1997, T. rex and the Crater of Doom, Princeton University Press.Google Scholar
Alvarez, L. W., Alvarez, W., Asaro, F., and Michel, H. V., 1980, Extraterrestrial cause for the Cretaceous–Tertiary extinction, Science, 208(4448), 1095–1108, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1683699.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Courtillot, V., 1999, Evolutionary Catastrophes: The Science of Mass Extinction, Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
David, A., and Fastovsky, D., 2004, Dinosaur extinction, in The Dinosauria, 2nd ed., Weishampel, D. B., Dodson, P., and Osmólska, H. (eds.), University of California Press, pp. 672–684.Google Scholar
De Hon, R. A., 2023, Meteor impact hazard, in Sivanpillai, R. and Shroder, J. F. (eds.), Biological and Environmental Hazards, Risks, and Disasters, 2nd ed., Elsevier.Google Scholar
DePalma, R. A., Smit, J., Burnham, D. A., et al., 2019, A seismically induced onshore surge deposit at the KPg boundary, North Dakota, PNAS, 116(17), 8190–8199, https://doi.org/10.1073/pnas.1817407116.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Hildebrand, A. R., Penfield, G. T. et al., 1991, Chicxulub crater: A possible Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary impact crater on the Yucatán peninsula, Mexico, Geology, 19(9), 867–871.2.3.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Morgan, J. V., Gulick, S. P. S., Bralower, T., et al., 2016, The formation of peak rings in large impact craters, Science, 354, 878–882, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.aah6561.Google ScholarPubMed
Morgan, J., Gulick, S., Mellett, C. L., Green, S. L., and the Expedition 364 Scientists, 2017, Chicxulub: Drilling the K-Pg impact crater, Proceedings of the International Ocean Discovery Program, 364, https://doi.org/10.14379/iodp.proc.364.2017.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Orth, C. J., Gilmore, J., Knight, J. D., et al., 1981, An iridium abundance anomaly at the palynological Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary in northern New Mexico, Science, 214, 1341–1343, https://doi.org/10.1126/science.214.4527.1341.Google ScholarPubMed
Rampino, M. R., 2017, Cataclysms: A New Geology for the Twenty-First Century, Columbia University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Raup, D., 1986, The Nemesis Affair, Norton.Google Scholar
Robertson, D. S., McKenna, M. C., Toon, O.B. et al., 2004, Survival in the first hours of the Cenozoic, GSA Bulletin, 116(5–6), 760–768.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

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