Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Global warming and its effects on the environment
Theories about the extinction of the dinosaurs
Impacts of global warming on the environment
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Global warming and its effects on the environment
How dinosaurs went extinct?
Seeing as how people always have their eye on the future it’s hard to know our past, for an example with dinosaurs. What exactly happened to them is a mystery; we know that they are extinct but how exactly. There are many types of theories out there like the Asteroid Impact theory, the possibility of the climate changing, and the thought out volcano eruption idea but which of these is accurate. There is more proof to support the impact theory overall and is highly considered to be more accurate among most scientists. There is an actual location of where the asteroid hit and data in the layers of the crater to support the idea that most life and organisms were wiped out after impact. On the other hand there is still
…show more content…
The idea that the climate had changed and ended dinosaurs as we know it is a bit hard to grasp. All throughout time species and organisms evolve; they adapt to their surroundings. Who’s to say dinosaurs didn’t? Some scientist say “Dinosaurs may have been partly to blame for the climate change. Their diets meant they emitted vast clouds of Methane, a powerful globe warming gas” (Leake) and that a normal dinosaur of that era could easily produce a thousand liters of methane a day. The claim dinosaurs unknowingly changed their own climate with their waste is a bit farfetched. This has been an ongoing event though, even today with global warming our polar ice caps melt changing our climate and ecosystem and we are still alive and kicking. Another finding in some mid cretaceous period fossils found there was a five degree Celsius drop in temperature but the evidence was controversial to say the least. “New findings show some dinosaurs thrived in cold climates. Dramatic evidence comes from Alaska 's North Slope, where William A. Clemens and L. Gayle Nelms of the University of California, Berkeley, have found signs, which they reported in the June issue of Geology (vol. 21, p. 503-506), that several dinosaur species spent the winters in cold, dark climates.” (Morell) These are very believable facts but there’s no indication that this was due to major climate change. More evidence …show more content…
16 Dec. 2014. Academic OneFile. Web. 15 July 2015.
Mestel, Rosie. "New angle on a killer?" Earth Apr. 1997: 22+. Academic OneFile. Web. 15 July 2015.
"Gone with their wind: dinosaurs were eco-disaster." Sunday Times [London, England] 6 May 2012: 7. Academic OneFile. Web. 15 July 2015.
Johnson, Kirk R. Moon over Chicxulub: Will Night Finally Fall on the Dinosaur- Extinction Debate. American Scientist, 1998. 568 - 571. Print.
"National Museum of Natural History - Dinosaurs." National Museum of Natural History - Dinosaurs. Web. 16 July 2015.
Morell, Virginia, and Richard A. Kerr. "How lethal was the K-T impact?" Science 261.5128 (1993): 1518+. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 July 2015.
Russell, Dale A. "Dinosaur Extinction and the End of an Era: What the Fossils Say." Science 273.5283 (1996): 1807+. Academic OneFile. Web. 29 July
The possibility if a meteor strike as the cause of extinctions is discarded, something that most specialists agree on. There is no evidence of any meteor crater big enough or recent enough to be accountable for it; there are no “elements that are common extraterrestrially but less so on Earth, such as iridium, and no sign of a tsunami or other phenomena following the impact.” The extinctions where also very selective and occurred over a very long period of time. If a “one shot” catastrophe had been the cause it would have affected all species at the same time and in similar
Paul, Gregory S. (2002). "Looking for the True Bird Ancestor". Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. pp. 171–224. ISBN 0-8018-6763-0.
The question of what caused the extinction of megafauna during the Late Pleistocene period is one that archaeologists have struggled to answer for decades, but why should it matter? Discovering with certainty the cause of megafaunal extinction would simultaneously prove or disprove any of the proposed implications of each existing theory regarding this massive extinction.
Charney-Perez, J. (2005, April 1). “History of Serial Killers”. Serial Killers. Retrieved April 23, 2014, http://iml.jou.ufl.edu/projects/spring05/charney-perez/history.htm
... in our criticism. Crichton and Spielberg made a greater effort to get things right than anyone before them. Perhaps, they did misspell “stegosaurus” in the Embryonic Storage Room, but who is paying attention? Since the release of Jurassic Park, a new interest has emerged into the field of paleontology. Without this new interest, fascinating breakthroughs such as evo devo might have remained a castle in the Mesozoic sky.
Dinosaurs were first believed to be cold-blooded because they were thought to be related closely to reptiles which are cold-blooded creatures. Cold-blooded animals don’t actually have “cold” blood, instead they rely on the temperature from their environment to regulate their own body temperature. They do this by taking advantage of external heat by basking in the sun, and by lying in the shade to cool down. A more correct term is “ectothermic” which means “heat from outside.” On the other hand, a warm-blooded animal creates heat internally by chemical reactions inside their body. They are able to regulate their body temperature internally instead of relying on their environment. Author of the article, “Dinosaurs: Warm or Cold Blooded?” Beverly Eschberger explains, “endothermic animals have a continually high requirement for food to fuel the heat generation. Providing they can find food their constantly-optimum body temperature means that they can stay active even when it is very cold” (par 3). Even though it was believed that dinosaurs were closely related to cold-blooded reptiles, most dinosaurs had similar behaviors of a bird which is a warm blooded animal. Believing dinosaurs were warm blooded would help explain the reason why dinosaurs were so dominant and plentiful for such a long period of time. There are many other factors that play a vital role in ...
2011. “Serial Killers and Mass Murderers.” American Decades. Ed. Judith S. Baughman, et al. Vol. 9:
We use dinosaurs to represent the changes in nature that have occurred throughout time. Studies found that although the “oldest rock did not show evidence of life, the progression of plant and animal life that changed in recognizable intervals, from ancient life, age of reptiles to the age of mammals” (Dino Nature Metaphor, slide 6), measured the age of the earth. When we think of dinosaurs in relation to nature, we think of that very powerful force that controls the cycle of life. Nature was able to yield such magnificent ferocious creatures that walked the earth and then take them back when they served nature’s purpose. Dinosaurs fit perfectly in nature’s constant
Until recently, scientists believed the chances of finding a fossilized dinosaur heart were extremely slim. The heart belonged to a 66 million year old dinosaur found in Harding County in Northwestern South Dakota. The dinosaur, found in 1993, weighed over 650 pounds and was 13 feet long. The dinosaur was in fairly good condition with the exception of the left side of the skeleton. The small, plant-eating Thescelosaurus, nicknamed ‘Willo’ has been acquired by the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences. Thescelosaurus was an ornithischian, or "bird-hipped," dinosaur that lived in the latter stage of the Cretaceous period. This was approximately 1 million years before the end of the dinosaur era. Native to North America, its range extended from the northern United States up into Canada. Since using the 3-D software to reveal Willo's heart, scientists have also used it to create 3-D images of the fossil's skull, and of remains from other dinosaurs in the museum's collection. (Fisher, Paul)
When I started this paper, I had many questions. I wanted to know what all the main theories of dinosaur extinction are and how many there are. I also wanted to know what factors in each theory would have killed these massive beasts. Other questions I had are: had dinosaurs been dying out before the event? Did any dinosaurs survive the Cretaceous/Tertiary (K/T) event? What religious beliefs contradict the dinosaurs’ very existence? The last question I wanted to address was whether or not an event such as this one could happen to us? After five papers and hours of research, some of the new questions I have are: what happened after the Cretaceous/Tertiary event? I would also now like to know if one of these theories could happen to us and how we would be able to handle it. I came up with these questions because I wanted to know we are living with this present danger. Whether a huge ice age could eradicate an entire population of humans is mind-boggling and would be extremely interesting to research. To come up with these new questions, I let my brain wander. I was joking a...
Blanco, Juan. "Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers." Murderpedia, the encyclopedia of murderers. N.p., n.d. Web. 13 Nov. 2013. .
...r optimum temperatures, hot climate caused the dinosaurs to heat up beyond their optimum. However, the heat didn’t kill them, but sterilized the males, because their testes functioned at certain temperatures. Gould argues that this theory is untestable, and the experiments with the influence of extreme temperatures on modern alligators do not necessarily explain the extinction of dinosaurs. Furthermore, many questions are not answered because of the absence of evidence. Gould states that this theory is another example of bad science.
The most significant event of the Cretaceous era came at its end. Nearly 65 million years ago, the second most severe mass extinction in earth’s history occurred. This resulted in the loss of around 80% of species living at the time. Though nowhere near as severe as the end-Permian mass extinction, the end-Cretaceous extinction is the most well known mass extinction event. This is due to the violent event that caused it the extinction, as well as the chapter of earth’s history that it closed: the Dinosaurs. The Cretaceous Event ( often shortened to K-T event) Of the animals that were killed off were the flying reptiles (pterosaurs) and the last few mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, both early marine reptiles. Many mollusks and species of microscopic plankton were killed. Terrestrial plants suffered mass extinction as well. Almost 60% of terrestrial plants were lost. This led to high extinction rates among insect populations, especially insects that were highly specialized to feed on just a few types of plants had it the worst. It took approximately 9 million years for the global insect populations to recover from the Cretaceous extinction. Immediately after the extinction, the earth saw an explosion of short term species who respond well to fire, or other external disturbance. Evidence of the catastrophe comes from a thin rock layer deposited worldwide just after the impact. It is dominated by fossil plants whose descendants recover quickly after fires of other disturbances, such as Fire Weed in Alaska. The causes of the Cretaceous extinction are still being debated by paleontologists. Scientists agree that the main cause of the extinction was a...
The K-T Extinction occurred 65 million years ago. Many species perished in that extinction. Today evidence for this extinction can be seen in the fossil record. Biological, botanical and geological evidence at the Cretaceous – Tertiary Boundary show that some enormous event occurred that caused mass extinction of life on the Earth. Controversy about the cause of the K-T extinction exists with two main theories currently being in favour. One theory is called Intrinsic Gradualism and believes the cause of the K-T Extinction was a slow and gradual Earth generated event, caused by intense volcanic activity and the effect of plate tectonics. The second theory is known as Extrinsic Catastrophism and proposes that the K-T Extinction was caused by a sudden and violent catastrophic event such as the Earth being struck by a meteor or asteroid. The K-T Extinction supports the concept of Punctuated Equilibrium in evolution because surviving species evolved and others were exterminated. This creates the stepladder effect of evolution seen in the fossil record .