Why dinosaurs

I could fill a book with contemporary defamatory comparisons to dinosaurs. To all that, I say humbug! They should all hope to be so lucky. Considering their breathtaking adaptations, such as titanic size, devastating power, extravagant plumage, razor-sharp teeth and bizarre spines, plates, horns and clubs, the public adoration for them is not surprising.

What is surprising is our dichotomous relationship with them. How did these versatile creatures, arguably the most successful group of large land animals in Earth history, get labeled as the epitome of prehistoric failure?

Or, maybe all the fiber-rich plants died, and they all perished of constipation. The most damning misconception about dinosaurs is the idea that their extinction represents their failure to change. Not clever enough, like our own tiny ancestors. The mammals took over, and here we are, smarty-pants primates, with dominion over the Earth.

Crackpot theories for their extinction abounded. A pandemic killed them. Mammals ate all their eggs. Their shells got too thin. Maybe all the fiber-rich plants died out, and they all perished of constipation. Maybe they were just too dumb to live. The nature of their disappearance remained a total mystery until , when Luis and Walter Alvarez a father-and-son team presented evidence that the dinosaurs did not fail to thrive — they were murdered. Snuffed out by a space rock that unleashed hell on earth.

It took decades for this idea to catch on, particularly with paleontologists, but most now seem to have finally come around to it. Dinosaurs, exculpated from blame in their own extinction, should no longer bear the tarnish of failure. They were, and still are, an unqualified success. We should learn from them. This rare peek inside the guts of the crater showed that the impact would have been powerful enough to send deadly amounts of vaporized rock and gases into the atmosphere, and that the effects would have persisted for years.

And in , paleontologists digging in North Dakota found a treasure trove of fossils extremely close to the K-Pg boundary , essentially capturing the remains of an entire ecosystem that existed shortly before the mass extinction.

Tellingly, the fossil-bearing layers contain loads of tiny glass bits called tektites—likely blobs of melted rock kicked up by the impact that solidified in the atmosphere and then rained down over Earth. However, other scientists maintain that the evidence for a massive meteor impact event is inconclusive, and that the more likely culprit may be Earth itself.

Ancient lava flows in India known as the Deccan Traps also seem to match nicely in time with the end of the Cretaceous, with massive outpourings of lava spewing forth between 60 and 65 million years ago. Today, the resulting volcanic rock covers nearly , square miles in layers that are in places more than 6, feet thick.

Proponents of this theory point to multiple clues that suggest volcanism is a better fit. Other research has found evidence for mass die-offs much earlier than 66 million years ago, with some signs that dinosaurs in particular were already in a slow decline in the late Cretaceous.

This all makes sense, supporters say, if ongoing volcanic eruptions were the root cause of the world-wide K-Pg extinctions. Increasingly, scientists trying to unravel this prehistoric mystery are seeing room for a combination of these ideas.

This nearly whole, deep-black skull belongs to the most complete specimen of Tyrannosaurus rex on display in Europe, an individual nicknamed Tristan Otto. But that notion depends a lot on more precise dating of the Deccan Traps and the Chicxulub crater. This debate may rage for years, as scientists dig up new clues and develop new techniques for understanding the past. All rights reserved.

Dustin Growick Self as Self. Jim Kirkland Self as Self. Nizar Ibrahim Self as Self. Tony Pinto Self as Self.

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