Many million years ago the earth was ruled by giant dinosaurs that used to shake the earth as they walked. But suddenly, due to some unclear reasons dinosaurs were totally wiped out from the face of the earth which made the way for mammals to become the new dominant species. Scientists have tried to find the exact reason for the mysterious extinction of the dinosaurs. Here we will discuss the most popular theories.

The rise of dinosaurs on earth started 250 million years ago during the Triassic period and lasted for more than 120 million years. Due to some great disturbance at the end of the Cretaceous period, dinosaurs became extinct and mammals started to take their place. The era of dinosaurs saw its end 65 million years ago.

Though most of the dinosaur species were herbivorous, there were also some ferocious carnivorous species - well known as hunters.

Extinction of dinosaurs

In the prehistoric age, many revolutionary climatic changes and other extraterrestrial events occurred which is considered to be possibly responsible for the extinction of Dinosaurs. Among these, the major events occurred in between the Cretaceous and Tertiary period which is termed as the T-K boundary. Here ‘K’ is used to refer Cretaceous period derived from the Greek word ‘Kreta’.

Asteroid Theory

So far you will find the most realistic theory of the Dinosaur extinction developed by Walter Alvarez and Luis which is known as the ‘Asteroid Theory’. According to this, a large Asteroid with a diameter of around 10 km hit the surface of the earth which caused a massive climate change. This catastrophe lead to the event where the sky remained covered with dust for several years blocking the sunlight reaching the earth surface. This caused the death of many plant species and decreased the earth temperature.

Since most of the Dinosaurs were depended on the plants for their food supply, this wide ranging extinction of plants cut off their food source and lead to their mass extinction. The other dinosaur species which depended on hunting other animals also suffered as their food source was cut off as well with the demise of the herbivorous dinosaurs.

Also due to the fall of temperature, the large Dinosaurs failed to keep themselves warm which was another reason of their death.

The supernova theory

Some scientists believe that a star was exploded near earth and this supernova had its impact on the life on earth with a huge amount of radiation hitting its surface. This can be a vital reason for the extinction of dinosaurs.

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Tags: asteroid theory, Climatic change, Dinosaurs, extinction, species, supernova

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