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Dinosaur stress:
Stress on the dinosaurs is a possible solution for their extinction. This theory was first thought up by Heinrch K. Erben when he found that the shell thickness of a certain type of dinosaur species decreased as time went on. It was thought that the warm climate and good habitats in the Cretaceous period could have caused over population of dinosaurs, thus an increase of stress on the dinosaurs would develop. Stress is known to cause hormonal imbalances in modern day birds and lizards, so this could have happened to female dinosaurs. An increase of estrogen in the dinosaurs would have caused the females to lay eggs with shells too thin. If this happened it would greatly reduce the chances of the young to be hatched and live to adult hood.
Caterpillars:
Caterpillars which were believed to have evolved late in the Cretaceous period could have stripped plants of their leaves, a valuable food to the plant eating dinosaurs. If the caterpillars were able to strip all of the leaves from trees, then the plant eaters would not have anything to eat and would die. If the plant eaters died then the meat eaters would die from lack of food. However this theory is thought to be extremely unlikely for caterpillars would have to strip all of the trees around the world of their leaves at virtually the same time.
Supernova:
A supernova is an exploding star. It can blast material huge distances into space. Some scientists think cosmic radiation caused by the explosion would cause extremely high rates of deadly cancer among the dinosaurs. Others believe the radiation reacted with the Earth's atmosphere and destroyed the ozone layer. Without the ozone layer to filter out dangerous radiation, once again high rates of cancer co...
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...s was supposedly because the earth tilted 23.5 degrees due to either an asteroid impact or debris from passing comets. This theory also links into the one of volcanic activity, due to the high number of eruptions of the volcanoes, more harmful gases would have been released into the atmosphere, causing high temperature changes which may have been harmful to many species of dinosaurs, for instance cold water creatures could have been affected by a temperature change in the water, which would of suited tropical fish more than their own species of cold water animals.
Works Cited
http://uktv.co.uk/eden/stepbystep/aid/586428
http://www.unmuseum.org/deaddino.htm
http://www.unmuseum.org/deaddino.htm
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005824/extinction2.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005824/extinction2.html
http://library.thinkquest.org/C005824/extinction.html
“They’re breeding.”(Crichton 164). Ian Malcolm had predicted that the dinosaurs of Jurassic Park were, in fact, breeding. This was discovered to be true later on in the book, when the numbers of dinosaurs were exceeding the expected count. The use of frog DNA to restore missing portions of dinosaur DNA was the underlying cause. It gave them the ability to reproduce by switching gender. Malcolm had said, “But life finds a way”(Crichton 160), early on in the trip to Jurassic Park, and as he had said, life truly did find a way. The very process of making certain that the dinosaurs were all female, thus unable to reproduce, through first, genetically engineering them to be female, and then irradiating them may have been the very reason why they did in fact reproduce. Any miniscule change, possibly caused by the irradiation, could have caused a metamorphosis. Or it may have been...
Ever since we were young we have been fascinated by the dinosaurs. We have played with dinosaurs as children, watched documentaries as adults with interest, and watching movies with enjoyment. No dinosaur from the past strikes more fear in the present day to the average person then that of Tyrannosaurus Rex. For decades children have played with dinosaurs and had T-Rex dominating other dinosaurs by chasing them down and destroying them. We have seen it time and time again in movies. In Jurassic Park we saw T-Rex terrorize humans, cars, and other dinosaurs. We have even dreamt about it, but if a recent study is correct we are false in our fears.
To make the dinosaurs dependent on the humans, the workers would give the dinosaurs lysine in their food. The dinosaurs could only survive in the park with the lysine filled food. If they happened to escape the park, the dinosaurs wouldn’t survive long without the lysine. This was called the lysine contingency. The scientists didn’t realize that when the dinosaurs were breeding on their own, with their lysine from the food in them, they were creating offspring with lysine already in them. The new offspring wasn’t dependent on the humans and could survive outside the
Cosmic rays are high energy charged particles, originating in outer space, that travel at nearly the speed of light and strike the Earth from all directions. The term "cosmic rays" usually refers to galactic cosmic rays, which originate in sources outside the solar system, distributed throughout our Milky Way galaxy. However, this term has also come to include other classes of energetic particles in space, including nuclei and electrons accelerated in association with energetic events on the Sun (called solar energetic particles), and particles accelerated in interplanetary space. Co...
The Permian-Triassic extinction occurred around 252 million years ago, causing the end of about 96% of marine life and around 70% of terrestrial vertebrate life that existed at that time (Lecture 29. slide 5). Overall, the event caused 83% of all genera to go extinct. This event led to an incredibly long recovery period that took millions of years for life to regain a sense of biodiversity. While many niches in the terrestrial ecosystem were left empty, they eventually were filled by surviving creatures that adapted and evolved. The extinction event is suggested to have lasted over the course of millions of years, with different genera going extinct at different times.
Dinosaurs are an extinct group of animals that thrived for 165 million years starting 230 million years ago in the Late Triassic period of the Mesozoic Era. Despite being extinct for the past 65 million years and not being able to study them in their true form, scientists have been able to estimate many different behaviors of dinosaurs. This paper will show that the close study and examination of different types of body and trace fossils, along with animal models, can be provided as evidence to estimate different types of behaviors in dinosaurs. The different types of behaviors examined below will fall into the categories of: mating; reproduction and nesting; social lives; locomotion; feeding; and fighting. To begin, a great deal of information gathered from fossils and compared to living animal models have been used to estimate mating behaviors.
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
The debate of whether dinosaurs were cold blooded or warm blooded has been ongoing since the beginning of the century. At the turn of the century scientists believed that dinosaurs had long limbs and were fairly slim, supporting the idea of a cold blooded reptile. Recently, however, the bone structure, number or predators to prey, and limb position have suggested a warm blooded species. In addition, the recent discovery of a fossilized dinosaur heart has supported the idea that dinosaurs were a warm blooded species. In this essay, I am going to give supporting evidence of dinosaurs being both warm and cold blooded. I will provide background information on the dinosaur that was discovered and what information it provides scientists.
...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...
Several mass extinctions have occurred during the Earth’s history. The Cretaceous – Tertiary Boundary (K-T) Extinction caused the loss of at least three-quarters of all species known at that time including the dinosaurs. The cause of this mass extinction is a controversial subject among scientists but the fossil evidence of it’s occurrence is abundant.
seems like it happened so sudden, as geologic time goes, that almost all the dinosaurs
Many different theories exist as to why the dinosaurs went extinct. We know for sure most dinosaurs died out around 65 million years ago. The majority of scientists agree on a number of theories as to what brought the end of the dinosaurs. The most popular theory is that an asteroid ended the reign of the dinosaurs. Another theory, massive climate change in the pre-historic atmosphere, caused all the dinosaurs to die. Some scientists believe that mammals out competed dinosaurs for food and other resources. The last theory that dinosaurs died due to a large amount of volcanism comes up in scientists list of theories as well. Many different theories of why dinosaurs went extinct include extinction by asteroid, mammals outcompeting dinosaurs, climate change and volcanism.
Supernovas are extremely powerful explosions of radiation. A supernova can give off as much energy as a Sun can within its whole life. A star will release most of its material when it undergoes this type of explosion. The explosion of a supernova can also help in creating new stars.
The Jurassic period is known as one of the most interesting periods of time in earth’s history, mainly for the awe-inspiring creatures many of which have gone extinct, the most remarkable being the dinosaurs. Life in the ocean during this time was also extremely diversified and amazing for the creatures it beheld. The Jurassic occurred from 199.6 to 145.5 million years ago, following the Triassic Period and preceding the Cretaceous Period within the Mesozoic Era. The supercontinent of Pangea began to drift apart during this time. Right before the Jurassic period began, a major extinction event occurred wiping out much of the life on earth. The events that unfolded afterwards gave life to a new planet.