You may have noticed that there are no dinosaurs around these days. In fact, there haven't been any around for about 66 million years. At the end of the Cretaceous Period, there was a mass extinction that killed off the last of the dinosaur species and many other living things. While extinction is a normal part of evolution, it usually happens to a species over a long period of time.
Animals gradually become extinct when more of a species die than are born.
A mass extinction, on the other hand, is much faster. A large number of species all over the world die out very suddenly, at least in terms of geologic time. At the end of the Cretaceous Period, about half of all life forms died out, including all the remaining dinosaurs. No one knows for sure, but there are some strong theories. Work with a group to find out everything you can about one of the theories listed on this page.