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Where, oh where, did those dinos go?
Where, oh where can they be?
Did they go extinct?
Or become some birds?
Oh where, oh where can they be?
The Article The Graph The Reader Opinions Updated May 2001 The Resources and Links
by Edward Summer
Most discusssions of the death of the dinosaurs some 65 million years ago (at the K-T Boundary) talk about only ONE cause. For example: An asteroid killed the dinosaurs or a climate change killed the dinosaurs. This makes it sound like there were dinosaurs on Monday and no dinosaurs on Tuesday.
Nature usually works differently. Species become extinct all the time, even today. In fact, it is believed that more than 90% of all species that ever existed in the entire history of earth have become extinct. However, it takes many years for it to happen. And usually there is more than one reason why it happens. Passenger pigeons became extinct because human beings killed them all for food, but they also became extinct because they had no natural fear of people, so they didn't run away. So ask yourself this question: What was the cause of their extinction? Was it people? Or was it lack of fear? Or was it a little bit of both?
We got to talking about this here at The Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette Dinosaur Central (D.I.G.-D.C.), and we all decided it is a little bit of both. And, in the case of dinosaurs, it is a little bit of lots of different things! Nobody around here ever heard this radical idea before! So we decided to be "scientific" and make a model of this idea.
Scientific models, as I am sure you know, usually have nothing to do with plastic car kits. A "model" is a description of how things might have worked with as many details as everybody can think up. Then folks sit around and look at the model and throw stones at it and see what stands up and see what breaks. In this way, careful scientists come up with good theories that work most of the time and eliminate bad ones that don't work.
We noticed, however, that none of us had ever seen a model of dinosaur extinction that include "weights" for all of the different factors. "Weight" is how important an idea is. In most of the extinction conversations, one factor gets 100% of the weight. Score: Asteroid =100, Volcano = Zero. Doesn't sound right, does it?
So ever anxious to put our feet in our mouths, we have come up with a weighted model of dinosaur extinction. And this is where YOU come in! Take a look at this cute little pie chart. See if you agree with us. See if you disagree with us, and send your VOTES for FACTORS and WEIGHT to us here.
We expect that there will be lots of disagreement! And we will publish the controversy right here. Below the pie chart is the first of the new reader ideas.
Remember, we'll keep changing this model according to what you all say!
The Graph: A Pie Chart (Where are the apples?)
Take a look at the pie chart.. Get out your boxing gloves. Here goes the bell! Boing-g-g!
Factor List based on Reader Responses
Updated 5/11/2001
| Factor | Weight
as a Percent |
Discussion |
Asteroid |
29% | |
| Food Supply Diminished | 14% | The food supply may have been diminished as a result
of the
1) Asteroid striking and smoke and dust blocking the sun 2) as the result of climate change (see below). |
| Disease | 14% | Like any other animal, dinosaurs may have gotten sick: bacteria, viruses. It is known, for example, that some dinosaurs had a condition much like modern arthritis. |
| Climate Change | 12% | Climate may have changed as the result of explosions from an asteroid strike, smoke from volcanoes, the precession of the earth (a repeating cycle lasting about 15,000 years). Evidence for temperature decline is growing steadily. |
| Other Factors | 5% | |
| Sea Level Change | 5% | |
| Explosions and fire | 5% | |
| Pollution (CO, CO 2, etc.) | 5% | |
| Volcanoes | 5% | |
| Predator Imbalance | 2% | |
| Egg Stealing | 1% | The evolution of an animal that ate one particular dinosaur's eggs (more than others) may have prevented any eggs from that species from hatching. The result would be that that dinosaur would die out. If we ate every chicken egg in the world, there would be no more chickens. |
| Photo Period Interruption
(change in length of night and day) |
1% | The length of a day could change because of dust or smoke in the atmosphere, a change in the orbit of the earth (moving closer or farther from the sun), a change in the speed of the rotation of the earth (shorter days), or precession (which would change the amount of light on the north and south hemisphere. |
| Change in Light Balance | 1% | If the balance in the the spectrum of light reaching the earth changes, some animals can no longer stay alive. Slightly more or less ultraviolet light, for example, is enough to cause some bacteria to become extinct. |
| Low species diversity | 1% | Animals depend upon other animals for food and to keep the environment in balance. If too many animals become extinct, then other animals don' t have enought to eat. |
| Misc: | > 1% | Gravity shift to greater gravity.
Dinosaurs too physically heavy to survive change. |
| Total of all factors | 100% |
]
I think the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other life forms was caused by one or more asteroid or meteor impacts, which came on top of an already high volcanic activity. This created a sudden temperature fall and reduction of daylight because of all the dust blown up into an already relatively dusty atmosphere, wich certain life forms wasn't able to deal with. I don't think this could have been as dramatic as stopping all or almost all photosythesis, becase this would have caused a collapse in the whole ecosystem.
The dinosaurs were probably
very active animals, and needed as much food as they possibly could find.
This would of course make them vulnerable for any sudden decline in the
food supply. In the same time they may well have been (unlike mammals and
birds) ectothermic animals. This would have made it difficult for them
to uphold a high enough body temperature both for feeding and digestion,
given a sudden temperature fall. And a reduction of the daylight could
also have made it difficult for them, because they may have been dependent
on a good sight for finding their food.
On Wed, 2 May 2001 12:37:59 -0500 "James Kauai" <thevault@franklinisp.net> writes:
> You guys said it but not
quite right, it was weight, literally. If
> you examine the size of
not only dinosaur, but of the insects, the
> plant life, you'll probably
notice that they where ALL big, not just big, too big.
> Consider this, lets say
the meteor does hit, what are the odds that
> it's going to hit straight
on. Not so good, more likely it'll hit at
> an angle. You ever see
a basket ball player spin a ball on his
> finger, he hits it at
an angle with his hand to keep rotation and
> centrifugal force up.
Now suppose the earth is like this basket ball
> spinning on some cosmic
hand and a meteor size hand hits it at an
> opposing angle. It's going
to slow down.
> What does this mean for
you, me, and everything on the planet? Well
> there are three things
that determine our planetary weight. 1) mass
> of the planetary body.
2) mass of the human/dinosaur/rat/etc. body.
> 3) the centrifugal force
applied to number 2 by the rotation of 1.
> In other words if the
spin slows we would be flattened against the
> planet, if it where to
speed up we could be flung into space.
> Need proof? Consider that
the only thing that can grow even close to
> the size of a dinosaur
today is a whale. He's in the water where his
> weight is reduced by buoyancy,
but take him out and put him on land
> and he is crushed by his
own weight.
> Then again I could be dead
wrong, this solution would be too obvious to be right.
On Mon, 26 Feb 2001 19:27:52 -0800 "elizabeth pine" <e.pine@worldnet.att.net> writes:
> I think it was a
chain reaction. A comet, asteroid or supernova
> caused climate changes
which caused an ice age which decreased food
> supply and caused the
dinosaurs to die.
On Mon, 18 Dec 2000 19:58:52 -0600 "Beattie Bunch" <beattiebunch@earthlink.net> writes:
> I think
they were Extinct because Eruption.
On Mon, 1 May 2000 09:16:31
<frederic.malmartel@free.fr>
writes:
> Problem with me...
> I don't vote for any of
the theory you explain...
> I suggest another one!
> http://frederic.malmartel.free.fr/Fin_des_dinosaures/eedinosaures1.htm
> I am sure it's the right
one!
On
Tue, 22 Feb 2000 11:52:29 -0800
"Morelli,
Eric" <EMorelli@dcmdw.dla.mil> writes:
>
You should have included cause and effect in your model. For
>
instance, diminished food supply and diseases are effects, but what
were the
>
causes? In my analysis, climate change was the cause of diminished
food
>
supplies and therefore should rank higher in percentage than diminished
food
>
supplies. To illustrate "cause and effect" one could theorize thusly:
>
Diseases were the effect of a lowered immune system in the dinosaurs
caused by
>
starvation, which was caused by diminished food supplies, which was
caused by
>
the blocking out of sunlight and photosynthesis, which was caused
by a
>
large asteroid hitting the earth and blowing up millions of
tons of dust
>
into our atmosphere causing light from the sun to be blocked.
>
>
If we use this illustration, the asteroid was the catalyst that
>
began a series of events that led up to the eventual extinction of the
>
dinosaurs.
>
>
Eric Morelli
>
Phoenix, Arizona, United States
Sat,
29 Jan 2000 09:17:10 EST
KSAWAUTO@aol.com
writes:
Gravity
Shift
> I
think that the reason the dinosaurs all disappeared was because of
>
a rapid change in the earths gravity making it impossible for the
heavy
>
animals to move.It is possible that an asteroid triggered the event
but the
>
blocking out of the sun causing global cooling does not hold water.This
would
>
have broken the food chain for all insects and small animals which
could not
>
have survived as the lowly opossum has. The animals in the sea and
>
reptiles (alligators and crocs) survived because of the bouancy of
their
>
surroundings.Some such as the great sharks disappeared, in my
>
opinion, because of natural evolution and not global cooling as has
been
>
suggested by some .A small animal or insect can in some cases
carry several
>
times its own weight but when you start adding tons to an animal
as large as some
>
of the dinosaurs it would have been impossible to move around to feed and
>
in turn led to starvation. An increase in the earth's gravity two
times
>
would have been deadly to heavy land animals.Even the trees seem to have
>
changed in height and composition. surely they were much taller during
the
>
dinosaur age.Less gravity could explain how the flying dinosaurs
types could
>
fly without feathers. I have just a high school education but I do
read
>
and think and I find too many holes in the global cooling theory
for the
>
demise of the dinosaurs. I would appreciate hearing from anyone about my
thinking
>
on this subject. I am not friends with anyone that I can discuss this big
>
question with but I am interested.
>
>
Ken Sawyer
>
High Point, North Carolina, United States
>
KSAWAUTO@aol.com
On Mon, 13 Sep 1999 16:42:59 -0600 john reber <jreber@bouldernews.infi.net> writes:
> asteriod
Date:
Sun, 6 Dec 1998 14:31:16 -0500
Subject:
Extinction Model Comments and Suggestions
Hey
hey! I think it's pretty obvious. Major marine regression corresponds
with many terrestrial extinctions, and the K/T was no different.
This would have resulted in loss of habitat for some creatures, and spreading
of foreign diseases for others, including the non-Neornithine dinosaurs.
Ciao!
Grant
Harding
High
school student/closet paleontologist
granth@cyberus.ca
Visit
Grant Harding's Dinosaur Destination at
http://www.cyberus.ca/~sharding/grant/
On Tue, 15 Sep 1998 17:41:21 -0500 LW1 <lw1@server.com> writes:
I believe
that it was a climate change or a series of huge volcanic eruptions,
Samuel R. Delany (award winning science fiction writer) 4/4/97
"Don't
forget about diminishing food supply and the evolution of disease micro-organisms.
They are as important as the asteroid! Diseases probably evolved over time
(viruses, for example) and may have killed dinosaurs."
T-Bone Wrecks (resident dinosaur and fount of wisdom) 4/4/97
"Yo!
I was real hungry! That's all I've gotta say."
There are lotsa Extinction links on D.I.G.s
Link Page
K/T
Boundary | Other Mass Extinctions | Could
Extinctions Happen Again While You Are Alive? | Books
|
Dinosaurs
and Death from Space (formerly: T. rex and
The Death Star) -
Meteor Hypothesis
New
Geological Analyis Shows Temperature Decline Work of Zinsmeister
on stratigraphic plane analysis at Purdue University, Lafayette, Indiana,
USA 14 May 2001There have been LOTS of extinctions
that affected animals besides dinosaurs. There were even some that the
dinosaurs lived through and survived.
Here are some links about
those.
Fifth Worst Mass Extinction Linked to Asteroid Impact - J-T
(Jurassic/Triassic) Extinction Article at Space.Com 5/11/2001
Vanishing Life : The Mystery of Mass Extinctions by Jeff
Hecht (September 1993)
"T.
rex and the Crater of Doom" by Walter Alvarez, 1997, Princeton
University Press, 204 pages. $24.95. . (April 1998) How a team determined
that an asteroid caused the dinosaurs' extinction.
]
created 10/96
revised 6/11/97, 4/8/99,
4/5/2001,4/15/2001
(c) 1996,1997, 1999,2001
Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette, Edward Summer, All Rights Reserved
