No it was a meteor about 6 miles wide that slammed into Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula about 65.5 million years ago. A meteor shower is defined as several meteoroids hurdling from space on a collision course to Earth. There was only one meteor in this case, although on impact, it could've broken apart, and those fragments could've hit Earth....but no, it was not a meteor shower.

Why can't I post to a discussion topic? Yes, I'm a member. When I give a reply or try to start a new discussion topic, it keeps redirecting to

“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 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!

No da!

It's only one meteor

It's also scientifically irresponsible to ignore cold hard evidence from multiple scientific disciplines. "Irresponsible" to state that such an impact could affect the planet that badly?

You've got more reading to do.