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I learned that there were many periods of extinction. I used to think that the dinosaurs just started the whole extinction trend and then it snowballed from there but in reality there were 4 more extinction periods before the dinosaurs even came about.

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Evolution- The gradual process by which something changes into a different form.
Common descent- animals decending from a common ancestor. Overtime evolving to fit the environment.
Natural selection- The process by which certain traits make it more possible for an organism to survive.
Extinction- The end of a species
Adaptation- when a population becomes better suited to its habitat.

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Cretaceous-Teritary extinction: 65 million years ago

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Cretaceous-Teritary extinction: 65 million years ago

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The Cretaceous-Teritary extinction is the best known out of the "Big Five" because it is the one that wiped out all the dinosaurs. Once this extinction happened it gave mammals a chance to take over.
Along with dinosaurs, some marine animals went extinct too. Such as ammonities, Cephalopods, Bivalves, and some relatives of oysters.
Evidence shows that the reason for this extinction was a massive asteroid about 6 miles in length. It supposedly hit Earth, knocked out all dinosaurs and left a crater in the Yucatan Penninsula of Mexico. When the asteroid struck Earth it created this big dust cloud which stopped sunlight from going to the plants and plankton. As plants and plankton died, it triggered the whole food chain wiping out herbivores and carnivores. Along with the dust cloud, debris came falling back to Earth triggering wildfires.
The theory of an asteroid hitting Earth is our best guess but there is other evidence proving that that might not have been the only reason. Some people say that there was more volcanic activity allowing gases into the atmosphere that could harm the species. Another theory was that the sea floor had dropped which reduced the shallow areas and possibly coast lines.

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Triassic-Jurrassic extinction: 210 million years ago

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Triassic-Jurrassic extinction: 210 million years ago

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All the major groups of the marine invertebrates survived the extinction. Brachiopods, shelled Cephalopods, sponges, and corals were the ones that got hit the hardest throughout this time. The land animals that were affected were the phytosaurs, which are crocodile-like creatures.
The cause of this extinction was the drift of Pangea (the super-continent). The movement of this land cause major volcanic activity which also released carbon dioxide into the air. Leading yet again to global warming.

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Permian-triassic extinction: 250 million years ago 

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Permian-triassic extinction: 250 million years ago 

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There were two massive extinctions during this period. The smaller one occurred at the end of the Captainian interval, and the other one at the end of the time interval known as Changshanian. Changshanian was way bigger than Captainian and eliminated more than 75% of the marine animal species. Both of these extinctions happened very quickly compared to others.
Unfortunately, the Trilobites which had lived in the ocean for over 250 million years were pronounced extinct during this time along with Tabulate and Rugose corals. Reed building had come to a halt for around 14 million years until the middle of the following Triassic period. Then, completely new corals like the Stony or Scleractinian corals. formed in the oceans. This extinction also included some land mammals like Primitive Synapids. Some people say that up to 70% of vertebrate genera was lost.
Much like in the Ordovician period, these extinctions were due to climate change. At the end of the Permian period, there was a massive volcano which was located on what is now Siberia, caused a bunch of lava flow. The eruptions also let out carbon dioxide which led to warming the planet and increasing the temperature of the ocean by 14.5 degrees.

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Devonian Extinction: 365 million years ago 

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Devonian Extinction: 365 million years ago 

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The youngest extinction happened near the end of the Devonian period, about 365 million years ago during a time interval called the Famennian.
This extinction happened mostly in very tropical environments, specifically in reefs and shallow seas. Stromatoporoids and and coral suffered losses and Stromatoporoids disappeared during the third extinction near the end of the Devonian period. Brachiopods associated with reefs also became extinct soon afterwards. Many groups of Trilobites also disappeared at each of the three major extinction time periods. Only few survived into the following Carboniferous period.

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Ordovician-Silurian extinction: 440 million years ago

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Ordovician-Silurian extinction: 440 million years ago

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There were two major extinctions for this species. The first began 443 million years ago. Jointly, these 2 extinctions might have removed around 85% of marine animals and species. All major animal groups of the Ordovician oceans survived, such as trilobites, brachiopods, corals, crinoids, and graptolites although they all lost some important members. Many species of trilobites disappeared and graptolites went very close to extinction.
Evidence shows that climate change might have been the cause for these extinctions. A major ice age was reported in the southern hemisphere which cause climates to cool world-wide. The first wave of extinctions happened when the climate was cooling and the second wave came as the ice age started to end.