"Extinction" 1996 Canvas panel 18"x24" Master RGB File: 6,763 pixels (22.5") high 8,857 pixels (29.5") wide 300 dpi resolution 171.4 Mb uncompressed Image Use Publication History

A hundred and sixty million years of dinosaur evolution produced some of the most wonderful and terrifying beasts that ever lived. Tyrannosaurus rex was a seven-ton carnivore that grew to a length of over forty feet. Yet for all its size and ferocity, Tyrannosaurus rex suddenly vanished with the rest of the dinosaurs in a geologic instant. A devastating asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous period may have contributed to the mass extinction of Earth's most famous creatures.

For many years it was believed all of the dinosaurs perished at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. However, recent discoveries indicate that a few dinosaurs may have survived for another million years beyond the end of the Cretaceous. That would make them the first known Cenozoic era dinosaurs.

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