What caused the extinction of the dinosaurs?
What did actually caused the extinction of the dinosaurs? Among the “culprits” we have the giant meteorite impact theory, a virus, ice age, evolution and so on. But first let’s go over the facts. For the dinosaurs, the evolution process went on a large scale…in size. According to Darwin’s theory, we can figure out that plants grew higher, herbivores grew bigger and higher, and predators followed them in this race for being larger than life. One could only imagine how life in those days might have been. A seven tones or more predator running after a 10+ tones prey, both of them the size of a bus. But it couldn’t have been a very populated world. My guess is that the lack of fossils might have some connection with this aspect, but only in the cause of the sauropods or the big carnivores. It was a world of the little ones. The largest of the dinosaurs had nothing to fear concerning extinction by haunt. And if a large predator managed to kill a sauropod then it would have been full for a couple of days. So the real struggle for survival went on a smaller scale. I will go over the main theories on the extinction of these magnificent beasts.
1. The giant meteorite impact
The impact might have caused the extinction of 95 % of the life on earth but it has some flaws. First, the angle and the velocity of the impact are some tricky variables in the problem. If the impact had taken place in the ocean, a proportion of the force released would have had unleashed during the first contact with the water, and, by knowing that this could be like hitting a concrete wall, we can asume that the meteorite shattered even further, after it’s original size had diminished because of the entrance into the earth’s atmosphere. The rest of the force would have dispersed in the water creating huge tidal waves and earthquakes on the sea floor. But the water surelly acted like a big cushin, so the damage couldn’t have been that great. And further inland it would have been felt even weaker. If the impact zone was on land, not only that it would have wipped out the dinosaurs and the small mamals but it would also have shifted the landscape in a significant way, killing most of the plants in the process. And if we add the dust clouds, we can conclude that the atmosphere would have been one that couldn’t have sustained life at optimal parameters. This means that all the remaining lifeforms were in danger of sufering a slow and paintfull death by lungs failure from inhaling dust and heated up air.
2. The super virus
This theory is good if you think that it is possible for a virus to jump species at such a rate and that it could have gathered different DNA information from so many genomes for it to replicate and spread at such a velocity that it provoked the death of so many life forms. A super virus like this one didn’t stopped the birds or the small mammals, amphibians and reptiles to evolve into the modern life fauna we see today on our planet. And to think that after 200 millions years of ruling this planet, the mighty dinosaurs could be taken out by a little “flu” is a little hard to accept. And the best argument is that dinosaurs wore very dispersed on all continents so it would have been impossible for all of them to be targeted by the virus
3. The ice age theory
This one is plausible but recent discoveries have shown that dinosaurs wore, in fact, cold blooded creatures. It could have been possible for the giants among them to find it difficult to live in such harsh conditions, but the small ones (some of them were covered by feathers or hair) would have found a way to couple with the snow and freezing temperatures. And if they roamed the land in packs it would have been easy for them to figure out some kind of way to enter into hibernation in a safe spot, even grouping when doing so, to maximize their body heat (it’s easy when you consider the size of a raptor brain proportionally with his body-they were really smart). An ice age means that the seas and possibly the shores of the oceans would have been frozen stiff, thus grouping the marine life forms closer, which translates into a lowering in fish numbers, due to the dangerous proximity from the predators, and a lowering in predators numbers, due to territorial fights or fights among the larger species. So the seas would have been a day and night fighting zone, so one could imagine that the evolution process went on to create some awesome defenders and some terrifying attackers but, when we look at our present marine fauna, the most terrifying creature that comes to mind is the great white (Carcharodon carcharias), not much in comparison with a Liopleurodon, a Mosasaur or a Megalodon.
4. The evolution theory
I don’t want to assert that Darwin’s theory isn’t correct, but sometimes it makes you wonder if it can be applied on all the living beings. I mean dinosaurs reached the peak of the evolution chain, they developed in perfect creatures, like machines, each category specialized on what it did best. Imagine how a top of the food chain, evolved creature from the present day, like, say, a lion would look next to a Tyrannosaurus Rex. So why think that dinosaurs evolved into smaller creatures that gave up all those qualities, while the monkey evolved into man, thus creating the most powerful force (in a destructive and intellectual way) this Earth has ever seen. It’s like assuming that the present day man will evolve into a little hamster to compensate the over population of the planet, while the little mouse will evolve to became a 4 meters tall by 9 meters long and 7 tones monster with a brain that would put even a modern day genius into shade. I’m saying that raptors, with their brains would have surely noticed that this is what truly matters if you want to be number one in the evolutionary chain. So why, then, evolve into something “stupid”? We might ask the Neanderthal and the Cro magnon the same question – their cranial capacity suggested that their brains were the same size or larger than that of the modern humans. It just doesn’t make sense. A big brain means a stronger being, but the “smart” prehistoric creatures just wanted to evolve into dumber, controlled by man animals, thus leaving the monkey the power to “create” the modern man. So evolution isn’t about adaptation to the environment’s conditions but a morphing and shifting process, during which creatures miraculously transform into other creatures and so on. I, for one, find this hard to accept.
5. The extraterrestrial theory
This is the unconventional explanation: the first men (or aliens who were trying to colonize earth with human beings) arrived on this planet on board a space ship and they killed the dinosaurs to make way for the colonization of the only know life sustaining planet in the ecosystem. This is hard to accept for a couple of reasons. We haven’t been contacted by any “Mother planet”, “space brothers”, “mother ship”, or even aliens for that matter (not publically anyway) to ask us about our well being or to confirm that we will destroy this planet also (we can presume that the reason for this “colonization” is the depleting of resources on the “mother planet”). And on the other hand what alien could have the heart to destroy such creatures that were heading for a evolutionary perfection just to make way for the destructive and under evolved humans? Of course we may never know the truth but this is rather funny, except if we can presume that the “astronauts” that first reached earth didn’t had a “mother planet” anymore (this could be our scenario in the near future) and were desperate to find a life sustaining chunk of rock to save their species. And the dinosaurs…zapped from the face of the earth without trying to keep something as a souvenir from them – some DNA samples, some living specimens (probably small ones), anything? This theory just doesn’t add up except if we can consider that all those things really existed and that some form of amnesia or something terribly wrong went on with our “astronauts” – The casting of Adam and Eve from the Garden of Eden could mean not a physical one but one that banned mankind from the knowledge of the past. Who knows?
6. My conclusion
My guess is that the answer to this riddle might be found in the very thing that sustains life: Planet Earth. I think that when a species of animals reach an almost perfect state the Earth acts like an inhibitor to prevent the dominance of some on the others. The planet shifted itself to make way for a new evolutionary process, one that could give other inferior species the chance to rise to absolute rulers. I find it hard to accept that any life forms alive today – and mostly human life forms – would have had a chance to evolve further than a burrowing rodent if the dinosaurs still roamed the lands, seas and air. The planet undergoes changes and you either keep up with them or die in the process. Maybe the dinosaurs couldn’t evolve further and by reaching this point they disappeared. One thing is certain: it will take a very long time for creatures as perfectly evolved to rule this planet. Humans are on a road to reaching this point but without any competition it will turn into a regression rather than a progress.