How did the dinasours die?

Answer 1

People think they know the reason why the dinosaurs became dead. But now one really knows. But i think i know how they became dead.

A comet crashed into the earth forcing impact onto the mantle witch caused volcanos to erupt killing some dinosaurs but only some then when the comet crashed it vaporized 1/4 of the worlds dinosaurs and sent a cloud of noxious gas into the earths atmosphere blocking out the sun witch killed plant life then killed the plant eaters witch later starved the carnivors killing most of them but some survived but turned into caniballs and then the last one starved to death and died

Answer 2

Although there are many theories to what caused the dinosaurs to become extinct, the most widely excepted one is the asteroid impact scenario.

65.5 million years ago, an asteroid with a diameter of 6 miles crashed into what is now the Yucatan Peninsula, creating the Chixculub crater. It threw so much dust into the atmosphere, that sunlight was blocked for months. Plants died without sunlight, and the herbivorous dinosaurs died without plants to eat. The carnivores soon died out, too, because their prey was gone.

There is evidence, however, that the Chixculub impact preceded the K-T mass extinction by hundreds of thousands of years, until another, possibly larger asteroid, struck and eliminated the non avian dinosaurs once and for all.

Even without the asteroids, dinosaurs were already dealing with the negative affects of climate change, and their biodiversity was decreasing.

Answer 3

There are dozens of theories to explain a probable cause or causes. Throughout the Mesozoic Era, individual dinosaur species were evolving and becoming extinct for various reasons. The unusually massive extinction at the end of the Cretaceous exterminated the last of the dinosaurs, the flying reptiles, and the large swimming reptiles, as well as many other marine animals. There is now widespread evidence that a meteorite impact was at least the partial cause for this extinction. Impact craters are visible on most planets in our solar system. A spectacular example of this was witnessed in 1994, when Jupiter was struck by a series of cometary fragments. Some of these impact blasts were larger than the Earth's diameter. Other factors such as extensive release of volcanic gases, climatic cooling (with related changes in ocean currents and weather patterns), sea-level change, low reproduction rates, poison gases from a comet, or changes in the Earth's orbit or magnetic field may have contributed to this extinction event.

Answer 4

It is not as simple to say that meteorite impact cause mass extinction. The best example of this is the KT Boundary Event that caused the mass extinction event 65 million years ago that marked the end of the Cretaceous Period along with the death of the dinosaur.

For many years scientist noticed that rocks dating back to 66 million years ago where relatively rich in dinosaur fossils were as rocks from 64 million years ago showed no dinosaur fossils. It was widely excepted that an mass extinction event occurred 65 million years ago. Many theories were put forward. From a super virus, to climate change, to the rise in mammals were looked at.

The Deccan Trap Theory.

For a long time scientist were aware of the Deccan Traps on the Deccan Plateau in Western Central India. It was an unusually large deposit of volcanic rock. When studying it further it was discovered that it dated back to 68 - 60 million years ago. It is estimated that the majority of the rock comes from an eruption event that occurred 66 million years ago near modern day Mumbai. The scale of this is very hard to imagine. Scientist believe that before erosion and plate tectonic forces the eruption measured 1.5 million km2 about 1/2 the size of modern India. Carbon dioxide, acid rain causing sulphur dioxide and poisonous carbon monoxide would have been released in vast quantities.

This would have changed earths environment catastrophically. Global warming and acid rain would have pushed life to the brink of extinction. However this kind of event would cause a gradual mass extinction. The K-T extinction happened too quickly for this to be the only answer.

The Alvarez Impact Hypothesis.

Then in 1980 a group of scientists looking at the layer from 65 million years ago and started to notice an unusually high level of iridium, an element that is extremely rare on earth but much more common in asteroids. All over the world when the layer was analysed the same concentration of iridium was found. The idea that an impact event caused the mass extinction was gaining credibility. However to prove the theory scientist needed to find the "smoking gun", the crater itself. After only 65 million years some scientist argued that there should be some evidence of it still remaining.

Then in the late 1980's, while looking for oil of the coast of the Yucatan Peninsular in Mexico, scientist noticed that the the rocks underground looked strange, as if there was a hidden crater underneath. More research done by Glen Penfield showed in 1990 that it was indeed an impact crater near the town of Chicxulub and more importantly it dated back to 65 million years ago. This was the definitive proof that an asteroid measuring about 6km in diameter hit Earth creating a crater some 180km across.

Super Nova Theory

When scientist noticed the high levels of iridium, some put forward the theory that a nearby star could have exploded. This would certainly explain the iridium. However it was soon realised that there should also be detectable levels of Plutonium-244. Under further analysis the element was not found in any abundance disproving the theory.

Maastrichtian Sea Level Regression

When scientist looked at rocks from the Maastrichtian Age (70 - 65 Ma) they noticed that layers associated with the end of the age are terrestrial but in the same place layers associated with the early Maastrichtian are from a coastal region. Since the rocks show no sign of distortion due to mounting building the only explanation is that sea levels dropped dramatically.

This would have caused massive changes to marine environments. The Western Interior Sea that covered the center of North America would have disappeared completely. Also the continental shelf environments which are the richest in marine life so loss of this habitat would have been devastating.

There has been no real evidence to the cause for the changes in sea level. The usual suspects such as an ice age have been ruled out. It is generally accepted that the mid oceanic ridges became less active and sank under there own weight.

Multiple Impact Theory.

Along with the Chicxulub Crater there is evidence of several large impact events from around the same time. Some scientists suggest that the asteroid that hit earth broke up due to the gravity of earth in the same way the comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 broke up when it approached Jupiter soon before it impacted the giant planet. The biggest chunk hit the Yucatan and smaller fragments hit in the Ukraine and also the North Sea.

Conclusion

The truth is probably all of these contributed to the mass extinction. The planet was in a state of flux. Huge changes in volcanism and changes to the environment meant that the planet was already dieing before the asteroid hit. The impact was enough to tip the balance and cause the mass extinction.

Answer 5

Nobody really knows the answer to this question, but scientists researched and found old dinosaur bones and near most of them, they found foreign content that could not be found on Earth. Then, Scientists made the hypothesis that a meteor hit the earth, causing the dirt to go into the sky, blocking the sun temporarily, but long enough for the dinosaurs to run out of food and starve to death.

Answer 6

there were never dragons so they cant be extinct if they never were alive

Answer 7

they died by the eruption of the volcano