Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event, also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction, was a sudden mass extinction of some three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago. With the exception of some ectothermic species such as the leatherback sea turtle and crocodiles, no tetrapods weighing more than survived. It marked the end of the Cretaceous period and with it, the entire Mesozoic Era, opening the Cenozoic Era that continues today. In the geologic record, the K–Pg event is marked by a thin layer of sediment called the K–Pg boundary, which can
Triassic amphibians, the first Lissamphibia, progenitors of first frogs, are known from the Early Triassic, but the group as a whole did not become common until the Jurassic, when the temnospondyls had become very rare. Other survivors the Chroniosuchia and Embolomeri were more closely related to amniotes than temnospondyls. Those became extinct after some million years. Most of the Reptiliomorpha, stem-amniotes that gave rise to the amniotes, disappeared in Triassic, but two water-dwelling groups survived; Embolomeri that only survived into the early part of the period, and the Chroniosuchia, which survived until the end of Triassic. Archosauromorph reptiles, especially archosaurs, progressively