Dinosaurs Extinction

So what killed the dinosaurs? Without having any background education in science it is hard for the general public to comprehend such matters and they rely on the knowledge of the scientists in this field. Although there has been much research on the subject nobody has come up with a conclusive answer. And we are left to read the countless articles, all having their own opinions as to the mass extinction. One such theory is that a shift in the solar system could have caused the mass destruction. According to an article published in Nature magazine,

Stephen Gould’s essay “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs” completely agrees with Joseph Williams and Gregory Colomb’s essay “Argument, Critical Thinking, and Rationality.” Gould’s essay deals with three theories for the extinction of the dinosaurs, two of which he argues are entirely invalid because they are not in accordance with the basic rules of argument laid out by Williams and Colomb in their essay. Gould also states that the third theory of dinosaur extinction, natural disaster, follows all the rules that Williams and Colomb espouse, and thus is a sound argument. Gould, Williams, and Colomb all state that the world has a problem with irrational arguments being shoved down people’s throats, and call for a

Nobody knows for sure exactly how the dinosaurs became extinct. However scientists have speculated for decades about possible events that caused the dinosaurs to die out. Possibilities range from asteroids, to volcanoes, to climate changes. One of the more popular or well-known extinction theories involves the belief that an asteroid struck the Earth, causing devastating effects, and triggering mass extinctions around the end of the Cretaceous period.

Dinosaurs ruled the earth for over 65 million years and thankfully for the human race, they became extinct. Ultimately, only a major catastrophe could completely wipe out an entire species, let alone an entity of dinosaurs and the debacle on the causes of dinosaur extinction have flooded the minds of paleontologists for centuries. Geologist and zoologist Stephen Jay Gould published “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” to compare scientific and speculative causes of dinosaur decimation. Personally, I found this passage very informational and enjoyed reading it. Gould provides three theories that capture the reader’s curiosity, allowing room for pondering in one’s mind.

In Stephen Jay Gould’s “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs”, Gould investigates three possible theories hypothesizing the reason behind the extinction of dinosaurs. The first theory suggests that dinosaurs became extinct due to a rise in temperature, which caused sperm to die, leading to the sterilization of male dinosaurs. The second hypothesis offer that many dinosaurs consumed bitter plants that contained psychoactive agents which their lives could not detoxify out of their systems. The last speculation about the dinosaur’s extinction is that a large cloud of dust formed in the atmosphere after an asteroid hit Earth’s surface. This dust cloud blocked out the sunlight, causing temperatures to drop and made photosynthesis impossible. Gould uses these three theories to lead to his central claim that science isn’t just about making fascinating claims, but should have a well developed hypothesis.

I considered the novel Jurassic Park by Michael Crichton to be a “Great Read.” Jurassic Park is a novel about a group of people in an amusement park filled with genetically engineered dinosaurs after a major problem occurs in its system. Its theme, characters, plot, and climax all intrigued me and made me want to continue reading it. One such theme that interested me was that too much ambition can be dangerous. In the novel, the creators of both Jurassic Park and the dinosaurs there are far too ambitious. It is this ambition that leads to both their and the park’s downfall. The two most affected are John Hammond and Henry Wu. John Hammond wanted more dinosaurs and did not want to eliminate them when they because a clear and immense threat to anyone on the park. Henry Wu on the other hand, did not want to keep the dinosaurs the way they were. He wanted to make them seem more amazing and “improve” them. Their ambition blinded them from important details about the dinosaurs. Disaster would strike both them and the park. This clearly shows the reader how one should never have too much

Life on Earth is what makes Earth, Earth. The planet of life almost became lifeless in

Since the 1980s the most popular theory for why dinosaurs became extinct was because of a meteor, but many people are skeptical of whether or not the meteor was the only factor in the extinction of the dinosaurs. In Stephen Brusatte’s “What Killed the Dinosaurs,” Dr. Brusatte talks about how the mystery of the extinction of the dinosaurs was a hug influence on his life and caused him to become what he is today. As a teenager Brusatte had a chance to talk to Walter Alvarez, the man who proposed the idea of a meteor being the cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs. Alvarez was able to come up with this hypothesis by examining the clay band between the Cretaceous period and the Paleogene period. The Cretaceous period was a time when the Earth had a surplus amount of dinosaurs and the Paleogene period was the time period directly after the Cretaceous period where dinosaurs had become extinct. When Alvarez studied the clay band he had discovered that the band was saturated in iridium which is an element common on meteors and asteroids. This led him to believe that a meteor may have led to the downfall of the dinosaurs.

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People often wonder why a Tyrannosaurus Rex or a Centrosaurus is no longer roaming around the world today. They wonder about what happened to the dinosaurs, but they cannot be given a certain answer. That is because the disappearance of dinosaurs is an event in history that is still being debated today. There are different theories that try to explain the extinction, but the two theories that have been most accepted are the asteroid impact theory and the volcanism theory (Ducharme).

Dinosaur extinction: An analysis of events and theories that possibly led to the dinosaurs' demise.

There have been five well known extinctions on this earth. The one most well known is the mass extinction that ended the dinosaurs. Mass extinction is often described as the elimination of a large number of species in a short period of time. Despite what many think, the elimination of species is almost commonplace at this point. The Earth is currently in the middle of a sixth mass extinction, and it’s been caused by the human race.

Another theory, “psychoactive overdosing,” was proposed by UCLA psychiatrist Robert K. Siegel. He claims that angiosperms, or flowering plants, produced “an array of amino-acid-based alkaloids,” which dinosaurs would unconsciously eat and end up dying. This theory believes that dinosaurs did not have the livers nor the bitterness taste buds to notice and detoxify the psychoactive agents in the angiosperms. Last, but not least, a theory of a collision that came upon earth 65 million years ago. Father and son, Luis and Walter Alvarez, reconstructed a scenario that explained the death of dinosaurs on land, and proposed that a giant dust cloud darkened the earth; causing photosynthesis to discontinue, followed by a drastic temperature drop (pg. 452). Any hypothesis theory is a big contradiction. It is useful with all the advantages it has, yet it can be a disadvantage when an answer can never be found. While the first two theories of extraterrestrial catastrophe are captivating, the “disaster” theory seems more likely reasonable. The asteroid theory is the most developed answer based on the source of testable evidence of iridium – as it proves the dissimilarity of speculation and science when it was found

The biggest mystery surrounding the dinosaur is how did they die? For over 130 million years dinosaurs ruled the earth. Then 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, they died out.

Rapid climate change also ends up on the suspect list of possible dinosaur extinction events. During the latter part of the Cretaceous Period continents broke up causing volcanoes to erupt and fill the sky with gas and ash resulting in a drastic climate change (“Dinosaurs Climate Change and Biodiversity”). The shifting of continents changed the Earth’s landscape, altering weather patterns and overall climate (“Dinosaur Extinction Theories”). Also, over a long period of time, climate gradually changed. Ocean habits changed, temperatures grew much more extreme causing scorching summers and frigid winters (Norell, Dingus, and Gaffney). Radical temperature changes like these led to a green-house effect, making life for the dinosaurs a lot