What killed the dinosaurs?

Question

Would you say it was the asteroid impact theory, volcanism, mammal competition, or continental drift?
Or perhaps a different theory?
What evidence would you give for your theory?
Thanks, this would be very helpful for a case study I am writing.
xx

Answer 1

My GOD there are some terrible answers here.

First of all, you can safely ignore any Creationist interpretations of how or when dinosaurs died out, unless you want to hear an idea that's spawned from a complete disregard for scientific evidence. Let's get some things straight right up front. Contrary to what any conspiracy-theory spouting Creationists would have you believe (chas_chas, I'm looking at you), dinosaurs did NOT ever live alongside man. Non-avian dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago. We know that because the last dinosaur fossil appears in rock strata that have been accurately dated as 65 million years old by a variety of methods. There were primates on Earth at that point, but nothing remotely resembling a human. True humans appeard a few hundred thousand years ago, well after dinosaurs bit the big one.

So what's to blame for their disappearance? We know that a catastrophic asteroid impact occurred somewhere around that time. Besides having the actual crater (it's buried under the Gulf of Mexico) that shows a tremendous impact happening around the right time, there's also a thin layer of iridium-rich rock that appears in the geological record at the same time. Iridium is rare on Earth but common in asteroids and comets. So, it makes sense that about 65 million years ago, a comet or asteroid slammed into Earth, carving out a huge crater while simultaneously ejecting iridium into the atmosphere to settle down all over the world.

The fact that an impact occurred is not seriously debated. The debate is about whether the impact could cause the extinction of every last dinosaur (except the ones that had become birds). Newer hypotheses suggest that, while the impact would certainly have been disastrous, there must certainly have been other changes in progress that weakened the reign of dinosaurs to the point of collapse.

For example, it is also known that a massive amount of volcanic activity was taking place at the end of the Cretaceous. A hotbed of volcanic activity near present-day India may have released enough carbon dioxide and other pollutants to poison the atmosphere and lead to runaway global warming. As entire ecosystems collapsed, so did the dinosaurs. Only the smaller animals, which presumably were better suited to thriving on a variety of nutrients, survived the extinction event.

Any major climate change could presumably have killed the dinosaurs, whether it was caused by an impact, volcanism, or anything else. Although I'm not 100% certain, I doubt very seriously that mammal competition could have undone the dinosaurs. Mammals lived in the shadow of dinosaurs for many millions of years and never fluorished until the dinosaurs were gone.

I hope that helps. Good luck.

Answer 2

There's many gigantic impacts that could not possibly have taken place since Adam and Eve as even one of them would've destroyed human life.

Answer 3

The scientists say it was the Ice Age that killed them. Of course there are a lot of other theories but if you are writing a case study maybe you should research all the theories and make your own opinion. Some theories are scientifically proven and some are not!!!! Good luck!

Answer 4

The Ice Age apparently

Answer 5

I go with the asteroid impact theory . enough said . good luck and god bless.

Answer 6

Man killed them off.

Those that think the dinosaurs died out millions of years ago are perhaps unaware of the large amount of evidence indicating that they lived recently alongside man.

There are many written accounts and depictions of dinosaurs.
http://www.genesispark.org/genpark/ancient/ancient.htm
Remember that the word dinosaur was invented in 1841. Before that people used names like dragon.
People from all over the world have accounts of dinosaurs: the Chinese who have incorporated it into their lunar calendar, The Welsh who have the dragon in their flag; The account of the Saxon Beowolf; The native american thunderbird; and other stories from many other nations. The Romans even made mosaics of them.

Furthermore, dinosaur fossils have even been found containing blood cells - hardly 65 million years old.
http://www.googlesyndicatedsearch.com/u/creationontheweb?q=dino+blood&hl=en&lr=

But check the evidence for yourself - don't by brainwashed by dogmatic evolutionists who don't want us to think for ourselves :)
http://www.creationontheweb.com/content/view/3061

The main reason they've died out is most likely because they've been hunted to extinction - good old St George.

Answer 7

MUA.......HAHAHA!!!!!!!!!!
I DID!!!!!!!!!!!!!!