What Ever Happened to the Dinosaurs?

Sydney Hamilton

Professor James

CSCI 202-50

9 February 2017

What Ever Happened to the Dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs roamed the Earth for 160 million years. Dinosaurs are ginormous and their skeletons can be seen from museums all over the world. Some dinosaurs flew, some ate meat, and some dinosaurs only ate plants. These prehistoric wonders died off about 65.5 million years ago, but nobody is certain how. There is a two-part theory surrounding how dinosaurs went extinct sometimes referred to as the “one-two punch.” (Dinosaurs killed)

The “punch” that happened first is global warming. Scientists say that that the global-warming was set off by a volcanic eruption in what is now India. (Dinosaurs killed) Some scientist speculate that during the Late Cretaceous period, the Earth’s continents started to spit up and cause many volcanic eruptions, thus changing the climate drastically from all the gas being released into the air. (Bauer) The dinosaurs may have not had the characteristics needed to live in such a changed environment.

 The second “punch” is the asteroid impact. Scientists believe that two asteroids, at the same time, hit the Indian Ocean and the Chicxulub crater, on the coast of present-day Mexico. Scientists believe this asteroid was severe enough to send the Earth into a “nuclear winter.” The ash and dust left behind from the impact was enough to block out the sun’s rays and inhibit life from continuing. (Bauer) Plants could no longer make their own food leaving the plant-eating dinosaurs to starve and die. The meat-eating dinosaurs could survive by dining on the already-dead herbivores. However, the carnivores would end up dying only month later. (History.com)

Dinosaurs were once at the top of the food chain millions of years ago. It is clear from all the fossils we have discovered that humans would have been no match for the big and mighty dinosaur. Scientists have conducted many years of research only to come up with a few  possible theories. It seems as if a combination of global warming and an asteroid were the prehistoric creature’s demise.

Works Cited

Bauer, Adriana. "Dinosaurs Climate Change and Biodiversity." Why did the dinosaurs die out?- Asteroid Impact. Web. 09 Feb. 2017. .