Classroom Resources

This video describes how prehistoric extinction rates are calculated from fossil data in a paleodatabase and compared to modern extinction rates.

This activity supports concepts covered in the short film The Day the Mesozoic Died. Students analyze graphs and data on pollen grains and fern spores to form a picture of the living landscape before and after the mass extinction that marked the end of the age of the dinosaurs.

This activity allows students to calculate the mass, size, and kinetic energy of an asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago, based on the total abundance of iridium in a sediment layer. It supports concepts presented in the short film The Day the Mesozoic Died.

This activity allows students to calculate how much iridium was released, and eventually deposited all over the Earth, by the impact of an asteroid that struck Earth 66 million years ago. It supports concepts presented in the short film The Day the Mesozoic Died.

This activity supports concepts covered in the short filmThe Day the Mesozoic Died by replicating observations and measurements made by researchers of fossilized protists, called foraminifera (or forams), below and above the K-T boundary.