Paleontology ›  Unit 6

Unit 6 The K-Pg Extinction

An asteroid, a planet-wide winter, and a volcanic suspect that won't go away. Ends with you writing the coroner's report on the most famous death in the fossil record.

🕐 10 class days🅰️ 4 Activities🅿️ 2 Projects🅱️ 1 Problem
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The Path Through Unit 6

The biggest death scene in the fossil record. Two suspects, one timeline, and a coroner's report nobody has fully signed off on. Read the full case →
6.1The evidence for impact4 days
PProject🕐 2 class days

P6.1.3  Impact by the Numbers

Calculate the energy of a 10 km asteroid arriving at 20 km per second and compare it to the largest bombs and eruptions humans have measured. Then drop objects into a flour-and-cocoa target from different heights and graph how crater size changes with impact energy.

Turn in: Impact energy calculation + crater drop-test data and graphOpen →
6.2The aftermath and the other suspect4 days
PProject🕐 2 class days

P6.2.3  Who Made It Through?

Compare the groups that died out, like non-bird dinosaurs, pterosaurs, mosasaurs, and ammonites, with the ones that survived, like birds, crocodiles, turtles, and small mammals. Look at size, diet, and habitat, then write a survival rule. Finding the pattern is easy; explaining the exceptions is the real task.

Turn in: Trait comparison table + a survival rule with its exceptionsOpen →
6.3Unit problem2 days
BProblem🕐 2 class days

B6.3.1  Cause of Death

You get the impact date, dated pulses of the Deccan lava eruptions, ancient ocean temperature records, and when each group's last fossils appear. Decide how much of the extinction the asteroid caused, how much the volcanoes did, and how confident you can be. Write the coroner's report and defend how you weighed the evidence.

Turn in: Coroner's report with an annotated timeline and evidence weightingOpen →