Click here for the PDF Download of this booklet

Death, Destruction and Dinosaurs

For over 100 million years, dinosaurs reigned supreme over all animals on Earth, but a global catastrophe 65 million years ago wiped them off the face of the planet forever. Their sudden disappearance from the fossil record sparked much debate amongst scientists as they tried to piece together the clues for their extinction.

But it wasn’t only the dinosaurs who suffered from this event - over three quarters of the life forms on Earth became extinct; those species who survived were those that lived deep in the oceans or underground, and those who flourished as scavengers on the Earth’s surface.

This extinction event 65 million years ago marks the end of the time of geological history known as the Cretaceous period and the beginning of the Tertiary period. As a shorthand, geologists call this geological instant the K-T boundary (K for the German word for Cretaceous; T for Tertiary). Rocks that formed during these distinct periods are recognisable by the fossils of tiny organisms known as foraminifera, within them.

Further reading:

The Extinction
Evidence for Catastrophic Events
The Crater