Dinosaurs are animals that man could not see in person, their extinction dates back many years, even years in which the evolution of man had not taken place, why did the dinosaurs become extinct, is as uncertain for man as many other theories. We invite you to continue reading to learn a little more about these theories.
mesozoic era
This era is known as the age of the dinosaurs, it happened two hundred and sixty-three years ago and was divided into three periods:
- Cretaceous
- Jurassic
- Triassic
The Jurassic period is the one characterized in which the dinosaurs existed. In each of the processes of this era, a problem arose and at the end of each one they went through an extinction process.
The dinosaurs
They were the largest reptiles so far recorded in the world, Wild animals that existed on the planet and of many kinds, aquatic, flying, terrestrial, carnivorous and herbivorous, these extraordinary animals were not known to man, since they existed many millions of years ago, long before human evolution.
Their size has been studied through fossils that are still being found in archaeological excavations today, however, in movies you can see large animals feared for their ability to devour meat and everything in their path.
According to the taxonomy of animals, all the birds that currently exist on the planet come directly from the descendants of the dinosaurs, the explanation for this is that these animals did not become extinct in their entirety, some remained on earth and evolved for a new world, of course those that did not become extinct were not carnivorous animals.
We must emphasize that it is not known for sure how many types of dinosaurs existed since in the movies we only see the most common ones.
Theories of the extinction of the dinosaurs
At present, science has not yet found the reason why the dinosaurs became extinct, the time is also often confused, this is because their theories are based on fossils, bones buried many meters below the surface of the entire planet. Science assumes that dinosaurs existed in one of the most striking eras on earth, this is because the size of all its animals was impressive, evidence of this dinosaurs.
Studies that have been carried out on their bones, show that the dinosaurs walked the planet sixty-five million years ago, man did not exist at this time, the so-called cavemen appear walking the earth in one of the three periods of the mesozoic era, the cretaceous period.
Then it can be said that the dinosaurs existed on Earth and became extinct, just as they have seen in the movies, a destructive meteorite falls on Earth, causing all the volcanoes to activate, giving way to the death of all terrestrial dinosaurs , some managed to survive, the reasons are not clear, but the flying and aquatic dinosaurs when the meteorite fell managed to be saved as well as some terrestrial ones.
The theories of why the dinosaurs became extinct are several, each one with the same end, the death of these fantastic animals, these theories are:
- meteorite or asteroid
- Volcanic activity
- Climate Change
We will explain each of the theories that science has released about How dinosaurs became extinct.
meteor theories
Forty years ago, science presented the meteorite theory, which consists of an asteroid from space impacting on Earth, the size of this, according to evidence found where it is presumed to have impacted, is twelve kilometers in diameter, as you can understand an asteroid from this size has a destruction capacity of up to ten times its size, that is, one hundred and twenty kilometers in diameter of massive destruction, not counting the particles that will become of it when it passes through the planet's atmosphere.
If each of the pieces that separated from the asteroid measured at least one kilometer for how big it was, it had the ability to destroy at least ten kilometers around it when it hit the ground, for that reason it is said that the terrestrial dinosaurs disappear at this time, they could not escape the lethality of the meteorite.
The meteorite was made up of layers of chemicals that were lethal to any living thing, so the dinosaurs that didn't go extinct from the crash became extinct from the spread of these harmful chemicals. According to the studies carried out on the asteroid that fell in Mexico, they assure that they are composed of a chemical called iridium, this chemical has the qualities of a deadly poison which can act in the way it enters the system of a living being It can be by breathing or by physical contact.
In turn, this chemical contaminated the waters where the aquatic dinosaurs lived along with other species of marine animals and it is assumed that this caused the extinction of these dinosaurs, so it can be said that the chemical with which the asteroid is formed had more impact than the same asteroid.
These studies were carried out in Mexico in the state of Yucatan, there is evidence of the crash of the great asteroid, which ended the lives of many animal species including the dinosaurs. The Types of Dinosaurs that did not become extinct evolved to be accepted in the following periods of the Earth.
Then it can be said that such a catastrophe occurred in Mexico and in turn the gases emitted by the chemical that makes up the asteroid spread throughout the earth and for this reason it spread to the other continents, although the Earth was not distributed as it it is currently, the same if it had parts of land divided by water.
The reactions that originated from the death of the dinosaurs, were advancing rapidly, let us remember that we all have a life purpose and in animals it is called the cycle of life, all animal species depend on each other to survive, then The triggered reactions were:
- The impact that destroyed much of the animal life that existed on the planet, including the dinosaurs.
- When the asteroid collided with the ground, the asteroid produced a shock wave, which in turn produced very strong tremors that ended up causing eruptions of volcanoes and tsunamis never seen before, which in turn ended the little life left on the planet. .
- The chemical ended up killing the species that could be saved, such as the birds, which had been saved from the entire catastrophe suffered by the terrestrial and aquatic dinosaurs.
- Due to all the natural phenomena that were happening at that time, the Earth produced a heat similar to the heat of the sun, the temperature was such that it disappeared even the plants that could be saved.
- The other phenomena that occurred in the earth's atmosphere due to everything that was happening made the Earth an uninhabitable place, where the species died thanks to the environmental contamination that it had.
- Some solid particles were formed in the sky of the planet, making it impossible for the sun's rays to penetrate them, and in turn, the life of the planet died, even the trees suffered because of this, thanks to the fact that photosynthesis did not take place.
- The diurnal animals suffered from not being able to see since at that time everything was dark.
- The temperature dropped to ten degrees Celsius, thus generating an ice age.
- After a few years, the animals that got used to living in the ice age suffered a new period of extinction, this was due to the fact that the layer that covered the sky disintegrated and the sun's rays entered the earth, melting this way the ice that had been generated while the earth was in darkness.
volcano eruption theory
This is one of the most accepted theories by science and it is that the volcanic eruptions wiped out the dinosaurs in a total way. Unlike the meteorite theory that happened in Mexico, this one is thought to have been somewhere in India, where volcanic lava covered a large part of the territory.
This eruption ended the life of many land animals and totally changed the marine ecosystem, by the time the eruptions occurred, the dinosaurs were dying from the toxicity that was spread in the air, the ashes covered the seas and in this way killing to many marine animals.
According to science, this caused many animals to become extinct including the dinosaurs, some of them only died of hunger, while others died of poisoning. Oxygen was potentially depleted by the ash layer that formed causing the death of many other species, few species survived this era and they evolved into smaller animals.
climate change theory
According to experts the extinction of the dinosaurs they were produced by certain climatological changes that occurred in their time, natural phenomena such as earthquakes, tidal waves and cataclysms, caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and millions of other species and all kinds of living beings. This was caused by a drop in temperature on the planet.
As a result of this, the water level was lowering, in turn bringing drought and many animals could not adapt to everything that was happening.
With certainty we can say that what actually happened is that with any of the three theories of why the dinosaurs became extinct, they all end with the suffering of an animal race, which had to go through the pain of burning or drowning.
Why the dinosaurs became extinct: explanation for children
Some children, when they are young, like dinosaur movies and this animal is very interesting to them, they begin to ask their parents questions about why dinosaurs became extinct and if one day this animal will come back to life as they can see in movies. and some are even so small that they think that the ones they see in the movies are real and that they could come home to eat them.
It is important that to explain this situation you do not create a trauma in the child's life, explain in the healthiest and funniest way possible why the dinosaurs became extinct, one of the most accurate explanations is:
A giant meteorite collided with the planet Earth thus ending the lives of many living beings not only dinosaurs and that the dinosaurs that can be seen in the movies are robots or animated effects of the cinema so that people believe that they are real but the truth is that it is not like that dinosaurs have not existed for many millions of years.
Although this is the best way to explain, they can also tell the little ones to look in books or on the internet, this is not difficult for them since at a certain age they can understand many things and do their research on their own. At the same time you can explain one of the three theories of why the dinosaurs became extinct, do it in a simplified way, as follows:
- The meteorite theory that we explained before in a subtle way so that children understand how a meteorite can end everything.
- The theory of volcanic eruptions, they can put children to watch documentaries about the destruction generated by lava and ash expelled by volcanoes, such destruction can kill entire populations not only of animals, it can also be detrimental to human health.
This theory can be evidenced in the last movie they made about dinosaurs where a volcano erupts on an island and the dinosaurs that are on it die, not just burned, despair makes them jump into the water and being land animals they know how to swim and they drown.
- The theory of climate change is a bit more complicated to explain to children, however, they can explain it in the following way, just as humans cannot stand the cold, dinosaurs are warm-blooded animals, cold is harmful to them. According to science, dinosaurs were reptiles that could not stand the cold, which caused a large part of them to become extinct when the temperature on earth fell and the ice age began.
Animals that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs
Some mammals survived when the dinosaurs became extinct, when these giant animals disappeared they gave way to other creatures and other Types of animals to which they will begin to evolve, this evolution brought as a consequence large mammalian animals such as the elephant.
At that time the animal similar to the elephant that lived in prehistory was the mammoth, one of the animals that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs, they must be clear that all these theories of why the dinosaurs became extinct were totally destructive, they devastated everything in their path and the mammals were lucky to survive these natural phenomena.
The reason for their salvation was that for these mammals to protect themselves from the carnivorous dinosaurs, they hid in caves, these caves managed to protect all the mammals that lived in them that did not suffer from any of the three theories of the extinction of the dinosaurs, that is to say, it is clear why the dinosaurs became extinct, if everything has a beginning and everything has an end, we all have a reason for being, apparently the dinosaurs had culminated with the reason for their existence.
Apart from this, mammals survive thanks to the fact that some of them could survive with only insects and aquatic plants and this was not so affected in any of the three theories, for example, crocodiles were one of the species that survived the extinction of the dinosaurs and evolved to adapt to a new world where he would be the top predator.
New theory of why the dinosaurs became extinct
About thirty years ago a new theory arose as to why the dinosaurs became extinct, some studies indicated that sixty-six million years ago, the dinosaurs became extinct, the asteroid that hit the earth had the ability to destroy what they destroy ten million atomic bombs, however, some scientists say that the asteroid that hit the earth where the dinosaurs supposedly became extinct was many millions of years before the extinction of these animals.
Research has shown that asteroids that come directly from space are only composed of sulfur and carbon dioxide, the same ones that volcanoes release when they erupt, this means that although they are lethal gases, they do not have a greater impact on the lives of beings. alive.
This means that for the time when the dinosaurs lived, sulfur acted as a conductive agent so that some volcanoes would also be activated and everything came together, that is, the three theories may be true, however, they acted together to destroy the era of the dinosaurs, this means that at this time there were many earthquakes, tremors, which had very active volcanic phenomena on earth.
For sure it is not known where the asteroid collided, nor of what magnitude it was since there is no evidence that it is on earth, the evidence of asteroids is, small asteroids of millimeters or centimeters at most and this attracted that fossil chemistry more precise.
Many of these scientists studied the various eras of the earth and currently still do not have a correct theory of what happened when the dinosaurs became extinct, however, many studies show that the three theories came together as we explained. previously and for this reason the investigations continue and some of these scientists and paleontologists are studying various hypotheses about why the dinosaurs became extinct.