Impact Of Dinosaurs Research Paper

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.

How did the dinosaurs really die? Located in the Bible have been verses that describe creatures that resemble what we might call dinosaurs. According to the Bible, dinosaurs were created by God, and existed over 6,000 years ago (Ham; Dinosaurs), and thanks to the evidence of the tissue found in the T-Rex bone (NBC News). This tissue couldn’t have lasted so long if it were any older. Many Evolutionists and Secularists state that the dinosaurs didn’t exist while the humans did, but state that they became extinct before the humans were even alive and say that they existed millions of years before humans (Ham; Dinosaurs). Dinosaurs couldn’t have died before the existence of humans because death was a result of Adam and Eve’s sin (Ham; Dinosaurs). All of the different species of the dinosaurs did broad Noah’s Ark, but those creatures that couldn’t board the cataclysmic event died and became the fossils that have been discovered by the many scientists of the world (Ham; Dinosaurs). After the Genesis Flood the earth was greatly changed because the sin of humans, death had entered the world. The teterous climate, lack of food, man’s sinful actions, and disease, were all results from the fall, and these results also became the results for the extinction of many creatures such as dinosaurs (Ham;

Large amounts of iridium – a chemical element that is not a part of the Earth’s crust composition – were originally found in rocks of Europe and United States, and have been found everywhere ever since. Iridium, common in meteorites, is a testable evidence of the disaster hypothesis. Gould continues that the Cretaceous debacle, which is one of five episodes of mass dying, occurred at the same time as the large comet might have smashed into the Earth. The author believes this is not merely a coincidence, rather, it is a proof of the cause-effect relationship. The demise of a wide range of habitats along with the extinction of dinosaurs gives an inestimable advantage to the disaster theory over other claims, the author adds. The comet struck the Earth, and habitats, from terrestrial to marine, died with geological suddenness. Finally, this hypothesis has had an impact on the study of an atomic war and its consequences. A nuclear war, Gould says, may cause a huge drop in temperatures and result in the extinction of humanity. Testable evidence, study, development, contribution – all this makes good science.

Surprisingly, the clay held almost 30 times more iridium than the limestone layers above and below the clay. Similar layers in other parts of the world gave the same results. The conclusion was that a giant meteorite hit the Earth 65 million years ago and had released a large

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.

Even with it being well accepted, the single impact theory is still questioned if it is the true answer. The single impact is exactly how it sounds. One giant meteor hit earth, wiping life out in almost every form. The few survivors are underground mammals, which live off insects and roots of plants, and some marine forms of life, like sharks. The suspected body that caused this is the Chicxulub Meteor. The meteor, roughly 10 km in length would have had the impact force of 191,793 gigatons of TNT. The force of 2 million Tsar Bombas, the largest nuclear bomb ever detonated. That force would have sent millions of tons of debris into the air. The rubble would have blocked out the sun and killed most plant life. They would have forced a new ice age and many reptile life forms would have died as a result of the sudden change of climate. Another supporting fact is that the layer of clay that was dated to be around 65 million years ago had shocked quartz and iridium. The shocked quartz is only found in suddenly high pressure environments like a meteor impact. The iridium clay had more iridium parts per million than the clay underneath and above it. Iridium is a rare earth element, only found in the magma under the crust of earth. However, it is found abundantly in extraterrestrial bodies like asteroids. This shows that to get a solid layer of clay with more

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).

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.

There reasoning for believing that the asteroid hit the earth and killed the dinosaurs is because there was a rock layer of iridium in earth layers about the time the dinosaurs went extinct.They had published their findings of the rock layer in 1981.Then about 10 year later a massive meteor was found in yucatan peninsula the meteor was about 110 miles in diameter and it hit the earth 40,000 miles per hour released 2 million times more energy than the most powerful nuclear bomb ever

My belief is that both the asteroid and ice age theory played a big role as to when the dinosaurs had become extinct. After the meteor had hit the earth, some of the dinosaurs and other life did die from the impact causing the destruction to the land on the earth and to the environment causing them to die off because of bad air quality, the loss of photosynthesis, and the little food there was for their survival. The others that had stayed alive would have probably migrated to other areas on earth where it was least affected and livable for the dinosaurs to live in and continue to live their lives for many years to come before they too eventually died off. Since the meteor was very large and powerful, it could have done some damage to the earth but of course it didn’t because it is still here but it could have tilted earth’s axis in which it slowly affected the climate change. This was probably the start of the ice age slowly coming together. Eventually the dinosaurs that did survive starting feeling the effects of low dropping temperatures in the new climate change, something that they were not used to before because they were cold blooded animals and needed the sun to keep their bodies warm. Eventually the low temperatures caused ice to form on the North and South poles making the oceans colder and possibly freezing the oceans. The dinosaurs would not be able to

There were over 1,000 different species of dinosaurs (“Dinosaurs”) that lived and evolved for almost 185 million years (“Dinosaur Facts”). Dinosaurs were some of the largest and most mysterious creatures to walk the Earth. Dinosaurs have helped scientists to understand the Earth and it 's past by studying different types, how they lived, their characteristics and what caused their mass extinction.

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).

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

One major theory explaining the disappearance of dinosaurs is the Alvarez hypothesis, or the asteroid impact theory. Walter Alvarez and his father discovered an atypical large clay layer at the K-T boundary, or the event of the extinction of dinosaurs, in Italy. The clay layer contained a high level of the element iridium. Iridium is found in the earth's crust, but it is very rare. However, iridium is very common in meteorites and asteroids. So Alvarez and his father assumed that an asteroid must have struck the earth causing the disappearance of dinosaurs (Ducharme).

The debate over what happened to the dinosaurs have been one of the most controversial research topics in history. One minute, the earth was blooming with countless trees and a healthy environment, then, in the period of seconds, all life on earth was wiped out, creating a mass extinction across the globe (Bond, 2017). Discovering what ended the cretaceous period has been a major priority in the scientific world, however, with enough modern day research, scientists have nailed the extinction of the Dinosaurs down to two major theories; the asteroid impact theory, and the volcanic eruption theory, both being extremely alike.