What killed the dinosaurs?
| As you may recall from my first page, my main question is "What killed the dinosaurs?" I don't mean what killed them in general, cause that was a lot of things, but what caused the sudden, mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous? This question has been debated about for a long time, and there are a lot of theories as to why the dinosaurs are gone. No one will ever know for absolute certain, but people continue to study it to find the truth. |
At the end of the Cretaceous period, all the dinosaurs became extinct--except one.
| One theory, and by far the most popular one, is that a giant meteor smashed into the Earth. The theory says this, a huge meteor, maybe the size of the moon, crashed into this planet, and sent up a huge cloud of dust, which blocked out the sun for thousands of years. Since the plants got no sunlight, they all died out, the plant-eaters had nothing to eat. Since the plant eaters are dead, the meat-eaters had nothing to eat, so they, too, all died. |
| This theory is supported because a large crater was found that looked like the size of the meteor that would have to have hit Earth. Also, a layer of a mineral that is found in huge quantities in space, but very rare on Earth, has been found all over the Earth, in Cretaceous rocks. |
| I totally disagree with this theory. I know people like it because it is much more glamourous than my theory, but it simply doesn't make sense. How could a meteor hit the Earth with such force to send a cloud of dust over the entire planet for thousands of years, but not destroy the planet? Also, what happened to the rock? We have the crater, but did this giant rock just get swallowed up? If the sun was blocked out, how come only certain animals died? Mammals need plants and the sun to live just as well as dinosaurs. Shouldn't all life have been wiped from the planet? This is why it doesn't make sense at all. Consider my much more practical theory. |
| The world used to be in one big supercontinent called Pangaea. In the Jurassic, and continuing now, the continents began to drift apart. While the dinosaurs lived, the whole planet was warm and tropical. The plants they ate grew in tropical conditions. As the continents continued to drift, the climate changed. It got a lot colder, a climate which the dinosaurs didn't like. The vegetation changed. The dinosaurs were unable to adapt, so they all became extinct. The mammals, however, being warm-blooded, could adapt to the changing climate, so they survived. |
| Also, most people think that one day the dinosaurs were there, one day they were all dead. In fact, even if it took them 10,000 years to die out, it would still be considered a mass extinction. This is the theory I believe, and why I believe it. If you have another theory, or some more proof you'd like to share, please mail drnick60@hotmail.com. Your opinions are welcomed. |
