The extinction of dinosaurs must have been related to a major event. Something enormous had to have happened in order to completely devastate these really massive animals.

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Molou

Dinosaurs’ Extinction: An Incredible Mystery

by Shahznane Molou

Introduction to Geoscience

Dr. Peter Bolton

26 March 2009

Index

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Bibliography...............................................................................................................................8

What were the dinosaurs? The first dinosaurs appeared 230 million years ago during the Mesozoic era which is also called “The Age of the Dinosaurs”. They survived ice age until a big natural phenomenon hit the earth and extinct them (Buckley, 1997). There were basically two types of dinosaurs living in the earth. They were the Saurischia which were the dinosaurs of similar hips to reptiles of today; and the Ornithischia which were of bird hips. Scientists distinguished the reptilian hips due to the steepness of the hips themselves compared to the other bird-hipped dinosaurs (Power point on Dinosaurs from Dr. Bolton). A huge argument scientists have been through is whether dinosaurs were warm-blooded or cold blooded. The evidences that prove the first argument are the bone structures dinosaurs had which are very similar to us human beings. Their long legs show that dinosaurs were fast runners so there are chances they were warm blooded. However, other scientists also argue that dinosaurs may have been of cold blood due to the fact that most of them had scales like the reptiles, which are cold blooded. The absence of respiratory turbinate in the dinosaurs is also a sign of evidence that dinosaurs may have been cold blooded because they share similar characteristics to reptiles (Power point). Nevertheless there is no clear and concise evidence of whether dinosaurs were cold blooded or warm blooded.

        However, the biggest argument that scientists have never really been able to understand was how exactly the dinosaurs died out. What is mostly believed is that during the time of the dinosaurs, they overcame a big catastrophic event that wiped out the dinosaurs. Nevertheless researchers are not sure whether it was a rain of asteroids that brought their existence to an end or maybe massive volcanic eruptions which created so much ash that they blocked the sun from heating the earth. No sun rays in the earth and the temperature would go extremely down. There are many theories that may explain why the dinosaurs, which dominated the earth for 160 million years, have died out suddenly. One may notice that dinosaurs were quite big in size. Why is it that present living organisms are nowhere near the dinosaurs’ size?

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        The extinction of dinosaurs must have been related to a major event. Something enormous had to have happened in order to completely devastate these really massive animals. The natural event must have been gigantic to have impacts such as the continent’s splitting, the formation of ridge expansions, and the fact that land sunk into the sea or risen above water. What is the most interesting part is that any other organisms living at the same era as the dinosaurs vanished as well after the giant catastrophe. There are three different theories that explain the disappearance of dinosaurs; The Alvarez Asteroid ...

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