| I just read an announcement made by the scientific | | | | come down" Any dinosaurs that escaped the |
| community. They are all in agreement as to what | | | | immediate dangers from this event were doomed |
| caused the extinction of the dinosaurs. According to | | | | anyway. A dense cloud of ash spread across the |
| the article, scientists from around the world came | | | | globe, blocking out the sun. No sunlight meant no |
| together to look at the data and announce to the | | | | photosynthesis and the plants began to die. Soon the |
| world what they believe to be the cause for the near | | | | herbivores began to starve and die. No herbivores to |
| extinction of all life on earth. Their conclusion was that | | | | eat meant that the carnivores were soon to follow. |
| an asteroid impact was responsible for the extinction | | | | Thus the larges creatures ever to walk the earth |
| of the dinosaurs. This impact crater is located on the | | | | simply starved to death and died. Smaller creatures |
| Yucatan Peninsula and is known as the Chicxulub | | | | found a way to survive in niches and areas of the |
| crater. This crater is 110 miles in diameter and lies | | | | earth that may have escaped the worst the event |
| buried near the Yucatan, that is; only a portion of it lies | | | | had to offer. The story in earth's oceans was the |
| under the Yucatan. The rest of it lies buried of shore | | | | same. Life went on for some, but not for others. |
| to the north. The crater was discovered during the | | | | It is possible that some groups of dinosaurs survived |
| 1970's during an expedition in search of oil in the region. | | | | this event, their species only brought to the brink. |
| I believe that this impact was in deed the main reason | | | | These survivors may have been finally done in by a |
| why dinosaurs went extinct, but things are never that | | | | number of other causes. A disease at this point, with |
| cut and dry. For one thing we know that not all | | | | their numbers so few, may have been the final act in |
| dinosaurs went extinct. Birds are classified as Aves | | | | their doom. Perhaps a population was beginning to |
| and they are a sub group of a class of theropod | | | | recover when a super volcanic eruption or another |
| dinosaurs. Not everyone is in agreement about this, but | | | | natural disaster took place that finally did them in. The |
| the majority of the scientific community believes that | | | | point is that we will never truly know if the event at |
| birds evolved from some dinosaurs. So, technically; | | | | Chicxulub spelled the demise of all the dinosaurs and |
| when the impact at Chicxulub occurred most of the | | | | not just the majority. I will concede though that if i had |
| dinosaurs, but not all went extinct. | | | | to pick one event that was the most responsible, that |
| We know that not all life went extinct, and the impact | | | | would be it. |
| event was not the first near extinction event that the | | | | And still we know that this is not entirely true. Not all |
| planet earth has encountered. A volcanic eruption, i | | | | dinosaurs went extinct, so to say that the Chicxulub |
| believe it was the Toba Super volcano is thought to | | | | event cause the extinction of the dinosaurs is not a |
| have brought the human population to its knees. | | | | true statement. We know what they mean when they |
| Imagine that, the human race almost went extinct | | | | say it. It really just marks the boundary of a new |
| roughly 70,000 years ago. Major events that can | | | | beginning on planet earth. A new beginning that has |
| cause or are thought to have caused mass extinctions | | | | been marked more than once during the evolution of |
| include impacts from asteroids and comets, ice ages, | | | | life on this planet. The number of species that have |
| and super volcanoes. These are the big events that | | | | gone extinct in all of earth's history far exceeds the |
| can have drastic consequences on the ecosystem. | | | | numbers in existence today. I believe that only 5% of |
| In all likely hood the dinosaurs did not drop dead all at | | | | the life that has ever existed on earth is represented |
| once. They probably didn't even see the asteroid | | | | by the living populations on earth today. This new |
| coming. The thing was moving so fast that it just | | | | beginning saw the rise of mammals as the dominant |
| punched through our atmosphere and WHAM! The | | | | species of the planet. Its crowning achievement is us, |
| age of dinosaur dominance was over, but not the age | | | | all of the human beings that walk the earth today. We |
| of the dinosaurs. Any dinosaurs near the impact zone | | | | may owe our very existence to that large asteroid |
| were vaporized. Farther out, dinosaurs were crushed | | | | that fell from the sky. If it wasn't for that event, |
| by debris from the ejecta from the crater. Fiery balls | | | | dinosaurs would still reign supreme. Instead, when we |
| of rock raining down from the heavens as this material | | | | look out our windows we may see a dinosaurs sitting |
| makes its way back to earth. "What goes up must | | | | in a tree, chirping away. |