Why Did Dinosaurs Become Extinct Research Paper

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,

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;

“Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs” is written by Stephen Jay Gould, professor of geology and zoology at Harvard. This essay is one of more than a hundred articles on evolution, zoology, and paleontology published by Gould in national magazines and journals. It tells about scientific proposals for the extinction of dinosaurs – a confusing but an exciting problem that humanity tries to solve. By analyzing and describing each of the claims for the reptiles’ demise – sex, drugs, and disasters – Gould differentiates bad science from good science and explains what makes some theories silly speculations, while the other, a testable hypothesis.

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.

Because there were no known fossil non-avian dinosaur fossils in rocks younger than the K–T boundary, scientists have concluded that non-avian dinosaurs became extinct immediately before, or during the event. It is possible that small dinosaurs (other than birds) did survive, but they would have been deprived of food as both herbivorous dinosaurs would have found plant material scarce, and carnivores would have quickly found prey to be in short supply. Ectothermic (cold-blooded) crocodiles have very limited needs for food (they can survive several months without eating) while endothermic (warm-blooded) animals of similar size need much more food in order to sustain their faster metabolism. Therefore, under the circumstances of food chain disruption previously mentioned, non-avian dinosaurs died while some crocodiles survived. The survival of other endothermic animals, such as some birds and mammals, could be due, among other reasons, to their smaller needs for food, related to their small size at the extinction

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

Four and a half billion years ago, the debris and dust left from the formation of the sun coalesced to form our home planet. 3.5 billion years ago, the first living organisms appeared on Earth. About 230 million years ago, Dinosaurs diverged from their Archosaurs ancestors during the middle to late Triassic period. For 160 million years they have dominated our planet. They are dubbed the most successful species to have lived on Earth. However, 65 million years ago, the most recent mass extinction seemed to have caused all of them to die-off. What caused the demise of the dinosaurs and 60% of life on Earth at the time? How did it affect life on Earth afterwards? Are all of the Dinosaurs dead? Will this happen to humans in the near future?

There are many theories explaining the extinction of the dinosaur. The Most probable theories are: a massive meteor hit the earth causing the extinction. B. A chain of volcano’s erupted and caused acid rain, shortage of sunlight and any other number of atmospheric problems that brought about the extinction of dinosaurs. C. Rapid Climate Change in a short period of time would have brought the dinosaurs to extinction because of an inability to evolve to the new environment. All these theories are possible but it is clear that it was a combination of all three theories working together that produced a worldwide extinction event.

Their extinction occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period and is noted as one of the largest mass extinctions in Earth's history and is referred to as the K-T (Cretaceous Tertiary) extinction but is now called the Cretaceous Paleogene (K-Pg) event by many researchers. So from this information a question has been derived, How effectively does the asteroid theory explain the extinction of dinosaurs compared to other theories? A wide variety of extinction theories have been suggested and some of the following examples have been evidentially thought wrong by many. Some examples of the extinction theories are the toxic volcanic gasses and dust (Volcanism), asteroid impact on earth and climate change. Some scientists have suggested

Plate tectonics did play a part in discovering what was the demise of the dinosaurs. Walter Alveras and his team were trying to discover why the Earth’s magnetic flip-flopped from south to north and they felt that the answers could be found in sedimentary rock samples. The sedimentary layer of rock was 65 million years old and formed a boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, known as the “KT” boundary. This boundary was made of clay and it was a devoid of fossils.

The word dinosaur was invented in 1842 by Richard Owen. Dinosaur comes from the Greek word “deinos” and “sauros” which translates to fearfully great lizard (“Learn about Dinosaurs”). Dinosaurs are always named in Greek and usually named after their unique fossils, where they 're found, it’s size or a person. Before a dinosaur can be officially named it must be approved by the International Commission on Zoological Nomenclature. It’s difficult to figure out how dinosaurs sounded, mated, behaved, what color/pattern they were and which ones are male or female. Paleontologists have however been able to discover that dinosaurs hatch from eggs, their bones have growth rings which can help figure out their age and that the larger dinosaurs lived for roughly 100 years and smaller ones for less. All dinosaurs evolved from other reptiles during the Triassic period. Dinosaurs are either herbivores or carnivores and are divided into two major groups. Bird hipped, Ornithischian, or lizard hipped, Saurischa. In the Saurischa hipped dinosaurs the pubis bone is down and to the front but in Ornithischian hipped it is point down and towards the tail (“Zoom Dinosaur”). The next step was to examine how dinosaurs behaved and their characteristics.

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

Nobody can really say what actually eliminated the species, although everyone has their very own idea. Asteroid impact, atmospheric changes (hot to cold), catastrophic eruptions and astronomical events (supernovas etc.). Some have ventured that early mammal inhabitation slowly “pushed” the dinosaurs to extinction. The most favored theory in the scientific field is that of the meteor impact. As always though, knowing when is part of discovering how and why.