Death of the dinosaurs

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What happened to the dinosaurs is a highly controversial issue that we still can’t solve to this day. There are plenty of theories about what killed the dinosaurs. Unfortunately, there is a high margin for error due to the fact that it was 65 billion years ago. The most popular belief is an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs, but how plausible is this theory?
In Mexican’s Yucatán Peninsula, there is the 110-mile-wide Chicxulub crater. This supports the concept that some extraterrestrial object hit Earth. Using a highly precise dating technique, scientists discovered high amounts of iridium that dates back to the time most of the dinosaurs died off. This means it would have to be a comet or an asteroid. A comet would have to travel a lot faster than it normally does to create the Chicxulub impact. Therefore, it is presumed to have been an asteroid that hit Earth, but did it kill the dinosaurs ("Researchers” and Than)?
There is another theory focusing on volcanic eruptions that took place in India. The impact on the dinosaurs from a series of volcanic eruptions is questionable. Could a slight change in climate cause a major decrease in dinosaur populations? Scientists discovered that, like alligators and turtles, dinosaurs’ gender is determined by temperature (Than and Farlow).
In Farlow’s research, he used modern reptiles to test the effects of temperature on gender. Using freshwater turtles, Farlow concluded that high incubation temperatures results in all males while low temperatures results in all females. Interestingly, there is an eight degree Fahrenheit difference between high and low incubation temperatures. These eight degrees represent the perfect temperature which can produce both male and female offspring (64).
Farl...

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...he Age of Mammals." Biodiversity and Conservation: A Hypertext Book. Irving: University Of California, 2002.
Farlow, James O. Paleobiology of the Dinosaurs. Boulder, Colo: Geological Society of America, 1989.
Hansford, Dave. "Warming May Drive Gender-Bending Reptiles Extinct, Scientists Say." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 10 Nov. 2006. Web. 23 Mar. 2014. .
"Researchers Say A Comet--Not An Asteroid--Killed The Dinosaurs." Science Teacher 80.5 (2013): 22-24. Academic Search Complete. Web. 23 Mar. 2014.
Than, Ker. "What Killed Dinosaurs: New Ideas About the Wipeout." National Geographic. National Geographic Society, 12 Feb. 2013. Web. 21 Mar. 2014. .

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