What are some alternative theories as to what caused the K-T Extinction Event? I feel like the meteor is just too perfect.

What are some alternative theories as to what caused the K-T Extinction Event? I feel like the meteor is just too perfect. Is it true that the dinosaurs were already starting to die off even before the meteor, and that the meteor was just the catalyst for the point of no return?

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  1. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >THE ICE AGE

  2. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    There was undeniably an impact event that happened.
    The problem is the fossil record is really spotty because fossilization itself only happens under very specific circumstances that don't happen a lot.
    There are a lot of theories, and little evidence.
    Personally I suspect the reality is a combination of a lot of things.
    Overspecialization and niche partitioning creates a situation that wasn't able to change as fast as the climate was with the breakup of the continents could have created an ecological collapse, a particularly nasty illness weakening keystone species. And then a big ass space rock came in and put the nails in the coffin for them.
    Mammals being unsupposing and opportunistic rushed to fill the niches that were open in a recovering planet.

  3. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    There is a thin layer or iridium, an extremely rare spaceborne metal, covering the entire world at precisely the same point dinosaur bones stopped existing. The KT mass extinction event was caused by an asteroid impact, that is as much a geological fact as any.

  4. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Lavos.

  5. 2 years ago
    Anonymous
  6. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Giant evil brain

  7. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The dinosaur with 500 teeth fricked it up for everyone

  8. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    >What are some alternative theories as to what caused the K-T Extinction Event?
    REALLY fricking stupid ones like "mammals ate all their eggs" or random climate change or the dumbest one of all: hyperdisease. The last two have also been used to try to explain the Late Pleistocene extinctions. And hyperdisease makes even less sense in that context.

    >Is it true that the dinosaurs were already starting to die off even before the meteor
    Not even remotely. The very last moment of the Mesozoic was when all the most famous dinosaurs like Triceratops and T. rex lived.

  9. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Dinosaurs are in the Hollow Earth

  10. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    The meteor absolutely happened, although that alone wouldn't have been enough. What's often not talked about enough imo is that the Deccan Traps were eurupting at that time and flood basalt euruptions correlate very well with almost every other mass extinction.
    Some interesting videos to watch:

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Did the meteor strike trigger the Deccan Traps, or was the Deccan Traps eruption already happening and the meteor was simply the coup de grace?

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        The traps were erupting for several hundred thousand years at that point. And no, a meteor of even that size doesn't have enough energy to transfer through the earth and cause an eruption on the other side despite this once being theorized. Computer modelling and siesmic tomography of the mantle and as a result better understanding of the properties and nature of the earth's interior proved this couldn't happen. Even if an object FAR larger than the Chixilub impactor hit and punched clear through the earth's crust it wouldn't be enough, and it would insinerate the entire earth's surface before that happened like in this kino:

        • 2 years ago
          Anonymous

          Do you think that what was mentioned earlier (not sure if it was you) about biodiversity beginning to fall - assuming that our knowledge of that isn't just because of gaps in the fossil record - was part of this? That biodiversity among the dinosaurs was dropping due to "evolutionary adaptation" in the wake of the Deccan Traps erupting and affecting the animals not adapted to it?

          In some ways, do you think it's possible that the meteor strike could've prevented a P-T Extinction Event, considering a similar event with flood basalt eruptions?

          • 2 years ago
            Anonymous

            Unlikely, also not me. I am always skeptical of "biodiversity" estimates from prehistory as the fossil record is a fraction of a fraction of past's endemic species so it's likely not very accurate.

            Although, one of the main reasons dinosaurs were so successful for so long was the low biodiversity caused by the devastating Permian mass extinction and Triassic mass extinction which makes sense. They filled every niche before anything else really got a chance and especially because of Pangea allowing species to propagate all over there wasn't a whole lot of opportunity for speciation.

            The Cretaceous if anything had the most biodiversity of the Dinosaur age since Pangea had long since split and the main clades that dominated former Gondwana in the southern hemisphere had speciated a fair bit from their northern counterparts (Abelisaurids and Sauropods dominating in the south vs Hadrosaurs, Dromeasaurs and Tyrannosauroids in the north).

            And the P-T event was unique since it was from our understanding far more massive than most basalt eruptions and also happened in the middle of a massive continental craton which likely built up immense pressure and created many opportunities for seeps and release of more volcanic chemicals into the atmosphere. The Deccan traps, while destructive, didn't occur in the right place or right conditions to make something like that happen afaik.

  11. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Supposedly biodiversity was beginning to fall when compared to earlier eras, but that's not necessarily a precursor to an extinction event, and could also just be indicative of a hole in the fossil records rather than the actual state of ecosystems.
    But the evidence for the meteor theory is pretty compelling at this point. The Chicxulub crater was found, and the geological layer of tektites (essentially tiny obsidian pebbles thrown by the blast) are as good as a wall between lots of dinosaurs -> very few (large) dinosaurs. If it matters, probably the more important aspect of the meteor was the rapid environmental changes than the immediate event, the fallout of which was relatively limited.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >the fallout of which was relatively limited.
      According to online posts the firestorm resulting from the impact circled the entire earth and anything that wasn't underground or underwater died.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Relatively in the sense of time and eventual scope, I mean. I don't think the immediate disaster - the blast, the firestorm, the tsunamis - quite absolutely covered the planet, but the rapidly changing pH balance of the world's oceans and the atmospheric dust blotting out the sun worldwide for years on end was really the death-knell for all megafauna that might have survived the initial catastrophe. As is often the case in ecological collapse, it comes from the bottom up; otherwise, those top niches can just be filled by something else, given time. That's my understanding of it, anyway.

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        Sounds to me like your mistaking the blast zone for the entire world. What you describe would not have reached every part of the globe.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      >Supposedly biodiversity was beginning to fall when compared to earlier eras
      I don't even think that's paleontologically accurate. The heyday of Stegosaurs and Sauropods was the Jurassic, but Hadrosaurs and Ceratopsians didn't even exist until the Cretaceous, and Sauropods - even enormous ones - lasted right up until the comet.

      The meteor absolutely happened, although that alone wouldn't have been enough. What's often not talked about enough imo is that the Deccan Traps were eurupting at that time and flood basalt euruptions correlate very well with almost every other mass extinction.
      Some interesting videos to watch:

      The current pet theory is that dinosaurs were endotherms. Problem is, that's not really supported by the evidence. It's likely the global winter the Earth was thrust into was enough to kill off everything that didn't have feathers (and probably most things that did). Most of the groups that survived outside of dinosaurs have defense strategies against cold: crocodilians go to deeper water and don't need to eat for months, pond turtles hibernate. Smaller animals could have survived in any number of refugia. Ectothermic megafauna, however, would have been fricked. Hell even most endothermic megafauna would have been. You don't even need to add any other factors.

  12. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    aliens

  13. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    radiation from supernova

  14. 2 years ago
    Anonymous

    Mammals ate all the dino eggs.
    The newly evolved flowering plants poisoned herbivorous dinosaurs.
    A deadly disease from outer space killed them.
    Oh and the Deccan Traps mass eruption or some shit...

    Those are some of the theories provided by my childhood dino books

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      The meteor was the catalyst in my opinion. Meteors that hit Saturn's moon of Calisto literally stopped its tectonic plates and halted all volcanic activity so it is not surprising that a meteor would frick up earth. The firestorm would be the first result after the actual impact. Then earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, ash storms/clouds, wildfires, and everything else you can think of ravaged the planet. Then would come the lack of biodiversity and the "bottleneck" effect where only the surviving species were left to fill the niches.

      I don't believe any of those but it's creative thinking I guess. The evolution of mammals and flowering plants really would be too slow to kill off so much of the planet's life that quickly. Life would adapt before it could be wiped out in that way. The disease idea is more interesting though. Dinosaurs fighting aliens sounds badass ngl.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      I remeber those old theories. But logically, most of them never realy made sense. Since mammals, birds, plants and marine organisim were effected too. The deccan traps of corse is another story. It bfing likely a supporting factor.

    • 2 years ago
      Anonymous

      Why in the ever-loving frick would plants want to poison the creatures that help spread their seed? And why aren't they still doing that to herbivorous animals today? Braindead theory, up there with "hurky durr megalowdawn wuz ay scavengur"

      • 2 years ago
        Anonymous

        >Why in the ever-loving frick would plants want to poison the creatures that help spread their seed?
        because eating seeds usually destroys them rather than spreading them
        >And why aren't they still doing that to herbivorous animals today?
        they very much are.

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