Unknown Reasons for Dinosaur Extinction

Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago for reasons that are still unknown, but we still have theories. Even though scientists have theories they also believe that dinosaurs went extinct for natural reasons, such as a volcanic eruptions, climate change, and diseases. These are all causes that could have affected the dinosaur extinction. The most recent looked at theory would be the impact theory. This theory discusses the topic where an asteroid or meteorite it the Gulf of Mexico and kicked up enough dust to block the sun for a long period of time.

This created a chain effect. The sun was blocked so all plants died and that killed off all herbivores, since they only ate plants. Since herbivores died off it greatly affected carnivorous since they ate meat and mainly other dinosaurs.

The asteroid that hit the Gulf of Mexico caused rocks to fly into outer space and into our upper atmosphere. When the rocks would re-enter our atmosphere they would enter in flames and hit avian-dinosaurs injuring them.

This asteroid also wiped out the giant mosasaurs and plesiosaurs in the oceans and the pterosaurs in the skies. The asteroid wiped out dinosaurs but most mammals such as turtles, crocodiles, salamanders and frogs survived as well as birds. While at sea, plankton, the ocean’s food base took a hard hit. The asteroid really effected both plants and animals.

Evidence has been shown that doesn’t support the impact theory. The only flaws with this theory is that paleontologist haven’t been able to find any dinosaur fossils with rocks dating back to the time of impact.

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It is shown that this evidence indicates that dinosaurs died out before the meteorite hit. WHat else troubles scientists about this theory is where the meteorite hit, they first believed that the point of impact was found on Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula where a large crater was found. Many scientists believed that’s where the meteorite hit, but there was one problem, the crater was too old. It was found that it was formed 300,000 years before dinosaurs disappeared. This evidence shows that this theory may be incorrect, but scientist don’t know for sure.

Other possible hypothesis’ or theories is the volcano-greenhouse theory, and climate change and disease. The volcano-greenhouse theory shows that the Deccan Traps event happened 65 million years ago, the same time dinosaurs went extinct. The Deccan Traps event were volcanic eruptions that flooded India with molten lava. Layers of lava created a deep pile, Earth would have been choked by a dark cloud of ash. This event changed climate and could have wiped out the dinosaurs. The only flaw with this theory is that it doesn’t

explain how many small animals and ocean creatures survived. Scientists have put thought on this theory but don’t think its the correct theory. How dinosaurs would have gone extinct by climate change and disease. This theory shows that dinosaurs couldn’t live in Earth’s changing conditions. Earth’s climate was warmer then than how it is now. There was a lot of expansive land that dinosaurs could have traveled to and catch diseases from new plants and animals. And as dinosaurs crossed paths with each other they could’ve passed on the disease. But as always there’s a flaw, this theory doesn’t explain why small animals didn’t get a disease or got affected by any type of climate change. For that reason scientist still don’t believe this theory is right.

Dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago for reasons that are still unknown, but we still have theories. So in conclusion we know that the impact theory shows that a meteorite or asteroid hit the earth kicking up enough dust to block the sun affecting the food chain. Affecting the dinosaurs. The only problem is that geologists haven’t been able to find a crater dating back to the right period of time. Evidence that does and doesn’t support this theory. Theories about other possible hypothesis’ such us the volcano-greenhouse theory and the climate change and disease theory. Those theories give explanations on how dinosaurs would have possibly gone extinct. I think the best possible theory is the impact theory. I think the impact theory makes most sense because it gives an explanation on how they died out and how other mammals could’ve survived. It just seems to make the most sense. So overall there are many theories on how dinosaurs went extinct 65 million years ago.

References

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6. Accessed Dec 9 2018 “DInosaur Extinction Scholastic”. Scholastic
7. https://www.scholastic.com/teachers/articles/teaching-content/why-did-all-dinosaurs-become-extinct/
8. Accessed Dec 9 2018 “Dinosaur Extinction”. Science News For KIds

What killed the dinosaurs?

Accessed Dec 9 2018