Theories Of Mass Dinosaur Extinction

“A minority disputes this theory, arguing that other events-such as volcanic eruptions, sea-level changes or a series of impacts-were to blame for the spectacular loss of species that occurred at the transition between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods…”

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.

who theorize that volcanic eruptions could have been the cause for the extinction of dinosaurs

The end-Triassic or Triassic-Jurassic extinction event occurred around 200 million years ago is and thought by numerous have helped dinosaurs to be the dominant species on earth for 135 million years. It additionally finished life for generally 50% of all species that were available around then. Until this event, mammal like animals known as therapsids were much more than the ancestors of the dinosaurs, known as archosaurs. The dinosaurs survived better compared to the early proto-vertebrates, and this extinction event may have altogether tipped it to support them clarifies #########. Of the Big Five, the Triassic-Jurassic extinction event has the least number of current researches. Its cause stays under debate,

Same ecological extinction happened when humans migrated to America 16,000 years ago. When the northeastern Siberia and northwestern Alaska were connected due to low sea level, Homo sapiens migrated to Alaska. When the glaciers melted after 2000 years since their arrival in Alaska, people were able to travel to rest of the United States and eventually to South America. On their path to South America, humans led to extinction of 34 out of 48 genera of large mammals in North America and 50 out of 60 genera in South America (Harari, 2015). Barnosky et al. (2016) also states that there has been sufficient evidence to claim that lower 48 United States faced a positive correlation between a decline in megafauna population and in a decline in diversity

Evolutionary scientists say that dinosaurs died millions of years before man had evolved. But does the evidence support that? Could they not have lived alongside man, as so many ancient stories suggest? From the unfossilized T-Rex bone to the stories of encounters with dragons to Mokele-Mbembe in Africa are some of the pieces of evidence that support this view that goes along with the Creationist model of a Young Earth of approximately 6,000 years.

The investigation of the overkill hypothesis in regards to the climate changes that are associated with the extinction of megafauna shows climatic changes had no through effect to forcing the overkill of these large fauna species in North America but rather the geography of human evolution and expansion had the most severity on species life and. The pattern of extinctions corresponds closely with the increasing appearance of humans migrating from the glacial Canada through the ice free corridor. As pointed in a scientific report conducted by Dr Grayson, in the Journal of Anthropology, “High extinction despite a relatively stable climate is most striking in South America, forming a strong contrast to sub Saharan Africa where extinction was

The species that survived the dinosaur extinction are believed to be what life on this planet is descended from. Aligators, crocodiles, lizards and snakes are among the reptiles that survived what dinosaurs couldn’t. Birds also survived, and are the only descendants of dinosaurs that survived the mass extinction other than lizards. Frogs and salamanders are among the few small amphibians that survived. Mammals also survived and they are the largest group to survive the extinction. Over 50% of the world’s population were thought to have died out in the course of this event. Many species became extinct, some of these were marine reptiles, big amphibians, some reef-building creatures and some cephalopod molluscs.

Dinosaur extinction could arguably be the most important event that contributed to world history. Without the extinction of dinosaurs, the human race would not exist let alone world history. These beautiful creatures appeared during the Triassic period about 231.4 million years ago. These creatures lived everywhere in the world including Antarctica. During the Triassic period all of the continents were morphed together into one called the Pangaea making travel a lot easier. Since the climate was different Antarctica had forest and was able to inhabit life. The dinosaurs disappeared at the end of the cretaceous period about 65 million years ago to an unknown source.

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

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

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.

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