Perfect Storm and Bad Timing May Be the Real Reason Dinosaurs Became Extinct redOrbit
go to original July 30, 2014

Dinosaurs were victims of bad timing, and likely would have survived the asteroid impact that wiped them out had it occurred slightly earlier or later, researchers from Edinburgh University report in a new study.

Dr. Steve Brusatte of the university’s School of GeoSciences and his colleagues explained that dinosaurs were at their most vulnerable when the asteroid hit, as a rising sea level and an increase in volcanic activity made them more susceptible to extinction, said BBC News science correspondent Pallab Ghosh. Had the impact occurred a few million years sooner or later, they might have survived.

Dr. Brusatte told Ghosh that it was simply a case of “colossal bad luck,” adding that the impact and the events leading up to it were “a perfect storm of events that occurred when dinosaurs were at their most vulnerable.” He was joined on the study by a team of 11 paleontologists and dinosaur experts from the US, UK and Canada.

Using the latest fossil records and improved analytical tools, the researchers found that the Earth started experiencing a tremendous environmental upheaval in the millions of years before the 10km-wide asteroid struck what is now Mexico. Increased temperature variability and other factors weakened the dinosaurs’ food chain, causing a lack of diversity among the large plant-eaters preyed upon by other dinosaurs.

When the asteroid crashed into the Earth, it would have caused a series of catastrophic events, including tsunamis, earthquakes and wildfires, as well as sudden temperature swings and other environmental changes. As the food chains started to collapse, one species of dinosaur after another would have died off as a result.

The only dinosaurs that would have survived these conditions would have been those with the ability to fly. However, had the asteroid hit a few million years earlier, when there was a more diverse group of species and a stronger food chain (or later after new species would have been able to evolve) they believe that the dinosaurs might have lived.

Read the rest at redOrbit

Graphic: Thinkstock.com

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