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Ordovician Extinction Research Paper

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Are we on the brink of a sixth mass extinction? Many say yes, but there is also hard evidence saying no. Nonetheless, scientists can prove five mass extinctions in history. The first mass extinction happened roughly around 445 million years ago. It was named the Ordovician Extinction. The species affected were known as Graptolite, which are different types of sea creatures. Their demise on Earth lasted around only one million years. Around sixty to seventy percent of the species disappeared, and now the remaining species have evolved into something new. The extinction was likely because of a short and dangerous ice age, or the formation of the Appalachian mountains. It was likely that glaciers formed over the oceans and caused the sea levels to rapidly drop, killing the species.

The second mass extinction happened to sea creatures once again. Somewhere between 375-360 million years ago, fluctuations of the sea levels in the ocean caused a large portion of Earth’s species to disappear. Another cause would be the changes in climate change, asteroid strikes, or new land plants. Some theories suggest that oxygen depletions in shallow waters caused the Devonian Extinction. Other theories say that algae …show more content…

The most likely cause of the extinction were asteroids or volcanic activity. Roughly ninety-six percent of the species on Earth disappeared. It was nicknamed The Great Dying. It happened around 250-253 million years ago. Scientists disagree on whether the extinction happened over the course of millions of years, or whether in happened in a short 200,000 year period. This was the only extinction to take out insects. It also took out coral, which means today’s coral is an entirely different group of coral. An eruption by Siberia blasted carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, which could have been one of the possible cause of the

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