What's Extinction?

Although there are many different kinds of plants and animals in the world today, there are many other kinds that once lived but are now extinct. We know of these amazing plants and animals that once lived by studying fossil evidence of their preserved remains. These fossils act as clues, telling us more about what kinds of plants and animals used to live on the Earth and what their environments may have been like. What could cause animals and plants to go extinct, especially magnificent reptiles like dinosaurs? Animals and plants may go extinct for a variety of reasons, including environmental changes and the disappearance of a food source. However, there have been times throughout history in which mass extinction events have occurred. These events usually happen when living things could not adapt or adjust to the sudden and drastic changes in their environment. Some of these changes could have included climate change, geologic changes (such as volcanic eruptions) and asteroid/meteor impacts. In this lesson, students will engage in an investigation about celestial impacts in order to ask and answer questions about what caused the great and mighty dinosaurs to become extinct.