Around 66 million years ago, the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) extinction marked the end of the Mesozoic Era. While this event is most famously known for wiping out the non-avian dinosaurs, many other organisms were affected—including plants. Extinction patterns in plants, however, differed from those in dinosaurs. High-level groupings of dinosaurs went extinct, leaving only the avian dinosaurs. In plants, extinction primarily occurred at the species level; many high-level groupings (for example, orders and families) survived. As primary producers, plants are fundamental to ecosystems. Loss of plant life at any taxonomic level can have devastating impacts on the organisms that rely on them.
