Dinosaur Extinction Research Paper

Gerta Keller, professor of geosciences at Princeton University, has recently conducted research on the Chicxulub asteroid in which she analyzed new core samples taken from the asteroid site (Botzer 2004). These samples indicate that the impact that occurred at Chicxulub actually predated the mass extinction of the dinosaurs, which occurred at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary about sixty-five million years ago. Keller claims that the Chicxulub impact occurred approximately 300,000 years before the extinction (Keller 2004). Although previous researchers estimated that the Chicxulub asteroid was the cause of the extinctions, there had always been doubts about the exact age and size of the crater, and about the origin of the “mega tsunami deposits” that were located within the crater (Keller 2004). The focus of Keller’s recent research was on finding some answers to these questions. To do so she analyzed Cretaceous limestone, dolomite, and anhydrite deposits as the site of the Chicxulub crater (Keller 2004).

Many people often assume the asteroid completely wiped off the land and marine species with just the impact of the asteroid, but was rather the tipping point of what came next. In fact Choi stated that “ "We have shown that these events are synchronous to within a gnat's eyebrow, and therefore, the impact clearly played a major role in extinctions, but it probably wasn't just the impact.” ( Choi). The ultimate reasons for the dinosaurs and other species extinction was the blockage of sunlight which initially darkened and chilled to earth to extreme temperatures ( Jones). At this point many animals and even plants started to die off because of the chilling conditions, but that wasn't the only reason for the extinction of these species. Soon after the dust had settled and the earth was able to receive light, the planet initiated a greenhouse affect. Which not only put the remaining species at high temperatures, but their food also became inhabitable (Choi). The evidence of an asteroid theory is supported by the impact crater, rare metal, melted rock, fractured crystals, and the fossil record (Jones). The impact crater is actually one the main key examples of why the asteroid may have been responsible for the cretaceous mass extinction. It showed the asteroid landing on the Yucatan peninsula, and traveling at 30 kilometers per second (Jones). Not

The Cretaceous mass extinction is the most well-known case of meteorite impact on the earth, but it certainly is not the only one. It is merely the most well-known. Due to the impact, debris entered earth's atmosphere and caused the plant life of the time to die off due to the lack of sunlight to survive. This made food much more scarce for the species that were dominant at the time. The competition was simply too much for them, and as the plant life died out, so did the herbivores and then the carnivores died out as well. Not only the land was impacted, however, the sea life was affected heavily by this impact as well. The lack of sunlight caused the oceans to become colder, causing the habitats of many marine animals to be drastically altered

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The Cretaceous-Tertiary extinction or K-T extinction, which marks the Late Cretaceous, is a massive and large-scale extinction of animal and plant species that occurred over a short period of time 66 million years ago.

The age of the planet Earth is estimated to be about four point six billion years old. Life on Earth is estimated to have started one billion years later. Evolution has taken place since then. Evolving life from simple forms into more complex forms through the course of time. It all began with single celled organisms, prokaryotes. Later evolving in a period of two hundred million years, cyanobacteria began to produce photosynthesis. And life went on, evolving, adapting to its home. However through this course of time, mass extinctions have taken place on planet Earth. One of the most recent mass extinctions, has as a matter of fact left various amounts of evidence of the creatures which roamed the Earth at that time. Such magnificent creatures which varied from a very small size to giant sizes. Creatures which are now known to humanity as dinosaurs. The name of this extinction was the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction. This extinction took place roughly sixty five million years ago. It has not been too long since this incident compared to the life span of the Earth. And yet it is still unclear how this extinction occurred. Paleontologists to this day, debate on how this extinction occurred. A major factor on what caused this extinction to occur was an impact of an asteroid. Another theory such as sea level regression is considered to be the blame for the extinction. Sea level regression is the drop of sea levels which aids to explain the marine mass extinction, however

The Cretaceous mass extinction had two theories on how and why it happened through the impact hypothesis. The first one was suggested that an asteroid collided with Earth 65 million years ago. Luis Alvarez and his son, Walter Alvarez found “high levels of the rare metal iridium” in the layers of the Earth during the periods of the Cretaceous and Tertiary located in Italy. Their proof is that it was the cause of extinction by an asteroid the size of 10 kilometers. The second impact hypothesis was from a crater that was found buried off the coast of Yucatan, Mexico. Due to the material that was thrown from the crater into the air, plant life could not receive sunlight to survive. The same goes for animals as the atmosphere was filled with dangerous

There have been 5 mass extinctions in Earth’s existence. The names of these are (from most recent to least recent): Cretaceous–Paleogene, Triassic–Jurassic, Permian–Triassic, Late Devonian, and Ordovician–Silurian. The most well known mass extinction, Cretaceous-Paleogene, was theorized to have occurred through a massive comet or asteroid impact. A cold winter created by the impacting object forbid any plants and plankton to carry out photosynthesis. During this time, about three quarters of all life went extinct. This happened approximately 66 million years ago. Most life forms went extinct, with some ectothermic species and tetrapods weighing less than 25 pounds. Although everything seemed to look hopeless, adaptive radiation caused evolution

During this extinction, about 76 percent of species died—including the non-avian dinosaurs. A lot of vertebrae and marine invertebrates were also lost (“End-Cretaceous Extinction”). Also called Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction, this extinction caused the K-T boundary that can be seen nearly everywhere in the world (“Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction Event”). The most well-known explanation as to what caused this extinction is the impact of an asteroid in the Yucatan Peninsula area near Mexico. This estimated 6-mile asteroid caused an approximately 180-kilometer diameter crater, which would have produced an enormous cloud of dust. The dust would have encircled the entire planet and prevented sunlight from reaching Earth, which in turn would prevent photosynthesis, and eventually kill of plants, herbivores, omnivores, and carnivores alike (Mayell). There have been many smaller impact zones near the main one, suggesting that the asteroid actually broke apart before hitting the Earth. Iridium, chromium isotopic anomalies, and shocked quartz have been found along the K=T boundary and impact zone, making this one of the best supported mass extinction theories out there (Mayell). Another theory that is gaining traction is about the Deccan Traps in India, which would have been active volcanoes during the

I haven’t really done enough research for me to say that I could possibly agree or disagree with this theory. Yes, I do think that the extinction had to deal with some kind of mass cloud coming over ruining the living conditions, but this theory is too over the place for me to say that I completely agree with it. I believe that the ideas about how the fog cloud could have covered the entire earth, but if it were to do that I feel like it would have created a mass extinction. Not just a dinosaur extinction. Going back to evolution, if dinosaurs had such a strong adaptation like other animals or insects have, they might have been able to stick around for us to see today.

Sixty six million years ago the Dinosaurs died out with no clear explanation. There are many different theories to why the Dinosaurs became extinct . The possIble Causes of the mass extinction vairy widely. Some of those theories were the Asteroid theory, climate change and volcano theory. The theorys that are most clear to why the dinosaurs died out with the Most evidence is the volcano and asteroid theory , the theorys involved an asteroid hitting into earths surface causing a massive volcano exploding in India, which lasted a long time and let loose gases into the atmosphere, causeing the climate to rapidly change killing the dinosaurs over time. There was a lack of sunlight caused by the dust layer, ending

According to the research made by Alvarez (1980), it was due to an asteroid impact that single-handedly destroyed dinosaurs to extinction. Advocacy of this mechanism has been aided by the availability and tangibility of supporting evidence in the form of impact craters- the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula's date and timing of impact (dating produced an almost exact date of 65 million years ago), location, enormous size-170 km (Hildebrand et al.1991) and its high iridium content ( a metal not commonly found at the Earth's surface) make it seem that with a theoretical asteroid 10 km big caused the crater great damage at the end of the Cretaceous (Alvarez et al. 1980).

These techniques led to the discovery of the boundary between the two eras. A single thin layer of clay found within predominantly limestone rocks established this. By comparing the marine life found in, above, and below the clay, the marine life, like the dinosaurs, had been terribly affected by the extinction event. The percentage of life in the upper layers was dramatically lower than that in the lower. This was far more compelling than what was suggested by dinosaur’s fossils.

New York, September 28, 3010 one of the biggest days in science history. Five kids named Zayn, Derek, Suzie, Casey, and Sophia have just discovered how to bring back dinosaurs back from extinction. Zayn the kid who thought of this idea was kind of nervous when he and his peers made a genetically modified dinosaur egg. But he was still proud of him and his friends about their scientific creation. The government demanded more of these mutations so the United States of America would receive tons of visitors because of this new attraction which means more money for our country. The government built a huge park with many enclosures for all the dinosaurs that the kids created after a few days. Couple months went by and the eggs started hatching and the dinosaurs were put in enclosure. The park opened up and the kids were presenting what happens at the park to the audience. During the presentation Suzie got a message from one of the managers of the enclosures saying that there was a dinosaur loose from enclosure 12 which is the biggest dinosaur which is a spinosaurus.

About 65 million years ago, an asteroid is said to have crashed off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula. This crash is what some scientists believe to be the reason the dinosaurs went extinct. The first to believe that impact was the cause of the extinction were the father-son duo of Luis and Walter Alvarez. They think that because of the crash the sun was blocked out by dense clouds of dust. The crash also most likely didn’t kill just the dinosaurs but, according to PBS, “...caused the extinction of just the dinosaurs, but of up to 70 percent of all plants and animals living at the time.”