“The Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction, which wiped out the dinosaurs and more than half of species on Earth, was caused by an asteroid colliding with Earth and not massive volcanic activity, according to a comprehensive review of all the available evidence, published in the journal Science.
A panel of 41 international experts, including UK researchers from Imperial College London, the University of Cambridge, University College London and the Open University, reviewed 20 years’ worth of research to determine the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which happened around 65 million years ago. The extinction wiped out more than half of all species on the planet, including the dinosaurs, bird-like pterosaurs and large marine reptiles, clearing the way for mammals to become the dominant species on Earth.”
Read more at Science Daily (thanks, ReliegiousMarie)
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Naaaah I think it was the fungus. It devoured everything. The same is going to happen again as a major reset on the planet Earth.
A Nobel prize has already been awarded in 1982 for proving this.
Why does anyone need to prove it again?
Study something else guys, move on.
It could also be a bacterie that came free from within the melting-ice caps…not so sure about either but it is interesting!
I saw a really interesting series on TV not so long ago about the dinosaur’s time on earth, and they too had their extinction down to a massive meteor (or something similar) hitting the planet & wiping away the whole species in one go. It was very interesting and I guess now that this article has come to light, shows that there must be some truth to all of it now.
Was very interesting as dinosaurs have always fascinated me.
LC x
Ooops, think I overdid the word ‘interesting’ there…..sorry. lol
LC x
we know the speed and the width but what mass or volume did it have. we spent a mechanics lesson wanting to make a question based on this but couldn’t
More likely to be a number of converging events, meteor impact likely to have been a factor.
However what are we most afraid of wiping us out not a meteor but a virus, bird – swine etc. Far more likely for a mutating virus to have killed them off. This would also make the survival of non – dinosaur species more believable as they would not have been affected.
This is purely speculative and improveable, it would have disappeared with the dinosaurs.
Just because an ateroid the size of the Isle Of Wight is noted as the reason the dinosaurs became extinct does not mean it is entirely at it’s centre. When an asteroid of that size would hit the earth it’s devestation field would be enormous, anything within the impact zone would be wiped out in seconds, however anything that survived would not have for long. With all the dust and particles an impact of that size would throw up it would cloak the earth within darkness, with no light the earth would become extremely cold and plant life wouldn’t be sustatined, with no plants theirs nothing for herbivours and with no herbivours there’s nothing for the carnivours,hence the other fascinating earth story….Snowball Earth…when earth became no less than a huge frozen snowball.
Its not the size of the meteor that counts…its the girth.
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