Most animals and plants that ever lived died out long before the present. The fossil record reveals that there are several periods of time in the earth's past when the extinction rate was very high (e.g., at the Cretaceous / Tertiary boundary, and the Permian / Triassic boundary) - causing mass extinctions of a large percentage of the species.
This category contains sites dealing with the subjects of extinction and mass extinctions in the fossil record.
Fully referenced BSc honours project on the History of Mass Extinctions with special reference to the proposed sixth extinction taking place at the present time. member.biodiversity.org.uk/teddy/projecta
A professional technical paper discussing whether the Late Devonian (Frasnian-Famennian) mass extinction was initiated by an extraterrestrial impact or an earth-bound event. www.lpi.usra.edu/meetings/impact2000/pdf/3072.pdf
A number of extinction concepts are discussed and loosely defined, followed by a survey of some important extinction and "extinction-like" events, primarily from the Phanerozoic. www.peripatus.gen.nz/paleontology/extinction.html
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