How did Dinosaurs become Extinct?
About 220 million years ago (in the Triassic period) , the
biggest creatures ever to have walked the planet, lived. Dinosaurs.
But how did they die out? Palaeontologists have discovered the bones
and fossils of hundreds of prehistoric creatures-so what was the real
cause of there extinction? And what, if not all the theories so far, put
an end to the creatures that have been discovered underneath rocks
all over the world?
With fossils underground of creatures we have no possible
memory of, its impossible to know what went on 65 million years ago
when they became extinct. Scientists have discovered, that the bones
found, where from centuries, upon centuries ago-which does lead to
the conclusion that they must, all, be extinct. Although this is the
most obvious reason, people still believe otherwise.
Some people believe that they have just evolved into reptiles
and the bones found underground are just the un-evolved creatures
of reptiles. This is a well known theory-but is it true? The reptiles
now a days are extremely similar to the dinosaurs. The teeth-sharp,
pointed little daggers (mainly canines)-The skin-scaly and rough (to
our knowledge)- and the tails-long and pointed at the end. With just
some of these similarities it is easy to relate Dinosaurs to reptiles.
But that doesn’t necessarily mean they are.
Dinosaurs have also been known to be related to birds. How is
that possible? Because Palaeontologists have discovered that,
Velocorator, a carnivore that grew to about 6 feet tall with a
protractible claw about 2 inches long, was very well in common with
birds-mainly the ostrich. They had half moon-shaped bones in the
wrist, which would have helped them if they eventually learned how
to fly. The pubic bone turned backwards like a bird. The vertebrae
full of air sacs and hollows, just like a bird and also the word
“Raptor” means “Bird of Prey”. However, this is only one species of
Dinosaur. So, how do we know the rest of the species did too?
Scientists have argued over whether Dinosaurs died out
gradually or all at once. The gradualists believe that the Dinosaurs
died steadily after one another at the end of the cretaceous period. A
number of reasons have been suggested for this happening. Some
have been that overpopulation was to blame because too many
mammals were eating the dinosaur eggs, which made the dinosaurs
unable to reproduce themselves. Others believed that disease was
the cause of the extinction-everything was suggested between rickets
to constipation. As for the extinction of them being exterminated all
at once, these theories were suggested; Changes in climate, volcanic
eruptions and magnet fields have also been held responsible. All of
these theories, to me, are not true.
Then there was the Ultimate Question-a meteor? In 1980, Luis
Alvarez, an American Physicist and his geologist son, Walter Alvarez,
suggested that 65 million years ago, an asteroid or meteoroid hit the
Earth. They found out that there is a high amount of iridium on the
Earths surface that is an impossibly large amount for the Earth to
conjure on its own. This led them too believe that the only
explanation for it was that it came from outer space. They then
discovered a 110 mile wide crater in Yucatan Peninsula, which has
been dated to 64.98 million years ago, giving it the most likely and
leading role towards the extinction of the Dinosaurs. The only
problem with this theory is that, if it was a meteoroid, wouldn’t it
have killed everything? Sharks and turtles now a days, all existed at
the same time as Dinosaurs, so they are obvious survivors, but
shouldn’t they have been wiped out too? This is just one of the many
questions which will, no doubt, never be answered.
A lot of people just set back to Natural Disasters, such as really
warm climates leading to forest fires, which causes the plants and
sources of food to die. Without the plants for the herbivores to eat,
they starve and die, which leads to no food for carnivores. Then they
starve and eventually die. This is just the average food chain, but it
could be the cause for the creatures extinction.
Dinosaurs. From Gigantic creatures (brachiosaurus), to the
same size as a chicken (Compsognathus-former known as Compi),
lived just like our casual animals which we have today. They lived on
land, in the water and up in the sky. The fact that Dinosaurs became
extinct has been cited as proof that they were evolutionary failures.
However, these creatures walked the planet for 150 million years and
in comparison the earliest ancestors to humans was 3 million years
ago. Humans have a long way to go before they reach the same
success Dinosaurs did-no matter how they died out.
By Kirsten Stewart
