“Meteor kills Dinosaurs”!!! I’m tired of seeing the results of an intellectually spoon-fed society. Note that I didn’t say “stupid”, “dumb” or otherwise. Certain things REQUIRE us to question. Be it for our own sanity or universal truth, even if, and especially if, it’s so-called “conventional”. Carl Sagan said it best when he declared, “Extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence”. Let us never again blindly accept a theory because someone said it was so, no matter what they have attached to their name. Even the scientists get paid, and therefore MUST cling to claims even in the face of new or revised evidence (hello Allen Hildebrand, meet Gerta Keller!). Let’s stop and think from different perspectives if it has even a chance at truth. With that in mind, I’d love to address, in brief (believe me, there is so much to this), the “meteor killing the dinosaurs” threads I see EVERYWHERE.

It is clear in the fossil record of marine animals (which feel the effects LAST) that extinction was already WELL underway prior to the Chicxulub impact in the Yucatan Peninsula. The idea that a SINGLE EVENT, namely the Chicxulub impact, caused such Earth-wide devastation, blotting out of the Sun with it's ejecta and resultant cooling of the Earth for years and killing everything, is scientifically irresponsible. An amphibian cannot survive under these conditions of cold, and most importantly, the ACID RAIN that follows in this "theory" (among MANY other affectations), it’s skin being way too sensitive to abrupt climatological changes in the air and water, and PH changes in the water in what it needs to be in, and around, to survive in even the most ideal conditions. However, these animals existed then and do presently in the same form (not “evolution”) as before “65 million years ago” when we had this “global catastrophic meteor impact” in the Yucatan. How to explain this simple fact (oh, there’s more; much more!)? It is true that enormous amounts of iridium (found in great quantity in asteroids, yet rare on, not necessarily IN, the Earth) in the K-T boundary are found around the globe. The Chicxulub impact has been dated, more or less, to correspond with this evidence plus or minus “300,000 years”. Not as long as you think when they’re talking “65 million years ago”. It could also come from enormous volcanic activity (Gerta Keller and the Deccan Traps). The impact definitely had an effect on life globally, as it would even today, but certainly was not SOLELY responsible for the extinction.

It should be noted that this particular extinction event killed about 65 percent of ALL life on the planet, not just the dinosaurs. Crocodilians, aquatic life, mammals and (ahem!) FROGS and other amphibians, to name a few, SURVIVED this "mass extinction by meteor". Truth is, flora and fauna were dying well before, just as the Allosaur in the Jurassic died out and gave way to the Tyrannosaurs of the Cretaceous so say the paleontologists (Hah!). By the way, I don't see REAL structural evidence that it was an "evolutionary" step up in terms of abilities for a predator, unless one believes, as I do, that our beloved T-Rex was, in LARGE part, a scavenger (GASP!! Tough to rid us of years of one opinion pounded into our brains since childhood!) as opposed to the Allosaurs being predators, given the ENORMOUS part of T-Rex's brain being allocated to olfactory sense, and thus both species might have very little to do with one another in an “evolutionary” sense; both occupying very different niches. Think about the difference between a Peregrine Falcon and an Andean Condor. One would not compete against the other for sustenance and therefore would have no reason to “give way” to the other). To look at an event and base an answer on only geology, cosmology, paleontology, archaeology, etc. or a combination of a few is not availing oneself to the whole truth. Knowledge is wonderful, but understanding is essential. To know the “what” cannot hold a candle to knowing the “why”, for the “why” pre-supposes the “what”.

Extinction happens!! Has for millennia. All said, the RESPONSIBLE answer to this question is WE DON'T KNOW WHAT KILLED THE DINOSAURS (yet)!! Even quantum physics is challenging issues we hold dear that were founded by Einstein, as Einstein re-wrote much of the world’s collective understanding previously. When the Large Hadron Collider is up and running at full steam, it may supplant our archaic collective intellects once again!! It’s just good science to question and PURSUE an answer. Again, it is scientifically irresponsible to declare AT THIS TIME what killed the dinosaurs until this massive jigsaw is put together with all scientific disciplines coming together (I sense a major catfight!). There are myriad questions that need answers that offshoot the original question that still remains unanswered. It is the BEAUTY of science, not it’s bane. Just keep thinking, and don’t allow someone else to do it for you. The pursuit is the joy; always is. I know this didn't help!

Hi there.

"The pursuit is a joy, always is."

Very attractive saying.

What would you think if some one says that the reason for the extinction (maybe partial and not total extinction) of the Dinosaurs was the Moon?!

cheers. :-)

How do you do? Very attractive reply!! I don't have a lot of time now, but I fell compelled to write back. In order to address the Moon, we need to go back to its infancy. The most current and plausible explanation for the existence of our Moon (the largest by far, relative to its parent planet in the Solar System) is that the orbit of a Mars size protoplanet (Theia) lost stability due to its mass, and being in roughly the same orbit, they were drawn together in a "moderate" velocity impact. Earth was hit at an oblique angle, thereby spinning Earth and possibly putting its 23.5 degree "wobbled" tilt. The Earth essentially absorbed much of Theia, becoming molten and the heaviest elements sinking to the core (iron, nickel). The vast amounts of ejecta would have been captured by the Earths gravity in a ring of debris....coalescing under attraction to form our Moon.

It is hypothisized that it was very close at that time; nearly filling the sky at night! Must have been a sight! Studies show now that the Moon is being slung away from us at about an inch per year. The Earth rotates a bit faster than the Moon orbits, so Earth's rotation slows fractions of a second and the Moon escapes ever so slowly (remembering that all objects move in a straight line until it is acted upon). If this inch per year has been the case throughout (how would we EVER know that!), some simple math says the Moon was roughly 1,026 miles closer to the Earth during the last extinction. When you consider that the Moon averages about 240,000 miles from Earth currently, the roughly 1,000 miles closer 65,000,000 years ago appears a negligible difference. In short, I don't believe it was a factor other than the tides being a few feet higher! Love the thinking!! Oh, and I reserve the right to be 100 percent wrong!! Hope I lent a hand!

Hi there again.

Thank you for the reply.
Very well put, specially the logic of the conclusion.
Compelling as a theory of the Moon's creation but it is very questionable(as far as I know) as there it seams to be a total lack of evidence or data to support it.

One thing about an acceptable theory or hypothesis is it's ability to stand up to any questioning and scrutiny.
Regardless of the source or the cause of it's initiating, a theory must be able to gather as much evidence and data as possible to support it's claims,I think.

Moon seams to have become an anomaly for the science these days as it seams to contradict some of the classical explanation models of our solar system's creation.

So all the latest explanations of the Moon's creation and of it's been the way it is, are only a way to make the Moon fit the picture.
But it seams that science is ignoring a fact regarding the Moon,a fact that I call it;"a staring in the face fact".
Our Moon it is a Dead Moon. Probably the only one Dead Moon on the Solar System.
It has died long time after it's creation.
This is signed all over it's face.
All the seas or oceans of frozen lava in the Moon(the most brighter parts of it)are a testimony of(to)that.

If,imagining, our Planet Earth as for some reason or another loosing quickly or rapidly it's atmosphere and oceans then it will end-up bearing same-similar testimonies to that act,as the Moon does.

Our contemporary science has evolved enough to analyze and establish that cause and time of Moon's death,but it seams to be puzzled or not willing to do so, probably due to it's own orthodoxy inhibited factor.

When it comes to the Dinosaurs,the act of that Death of our Moon I consider it as been the death sentence for most of them species and an act of birth for the following replacement species.

As for the escaping of the Moon from Earth,I my self rather see it more like an orbital cycle. The Moons orbit,as probably in all orbital systems, it is not infinitely fixed.It moves through a cycle of farther and closer movement regarding Earth,probably very slowly.It may take thousands of years, perhaps much much longer, for the Moon to reach the most extreme possible point of farthest or closest been from Earth.So now we get the impression that it is escaping.So that inch-per-year movement could be seen also as the Moon traveling through it's probable orbital cycles.At the moment it seams is moving away from Earth,but does not mean it will continue to do so for ever and escape.
Probably in another time Moon could have been seen or could be seen moving towards Earth an inch-per-year.

Am not claiming this to be a theory or hypothesis,only an idea to have a look from a different angle in this discussion. And also I too reserve 100% the right to be wrong.:-) :-)

Hope this does not infringe your time and box it down.
Very appreciated.

Thank you very much.:-)

There is a recent article on what killed the dinosaurs. If the URLs don't work, Google 'settled dinosaur death'. These links are to the San Francisco Chronicle and the L.A. Times, respectively.

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-03-05/news/18376824_1_asteroid-impact-chicxulub-violent-volcanic-eruptions

http://articles.latimes.com/2010/mar/04/science/la-sci-dinosaurs5-2010mar05

(Can I put in links? Use bold and italics? TIA)

AnnDee

have you considered a galactic core event as a possible push toward extinction regarding not just this event but for the others as well. The Permian was probably the worst and there is alot of evidence to support some kind of massive event in the solar system for both that one and the Miocene extinction.

Dawn