A new theory on the extinction of dinosaurs emerges.
Summary:
A group of researchers at the University of Albany (USA) have a different hypothesis about the fall of a meteorite 65 million years ago that caused the extinction of dinosaurs.
Link:
| Asteroid impact. |
Publication date:
APRIL 06, 2018
Scientific field:
Palaeontology
Glossary:
Despite: without being affected by.
Therefore: for that reason; consequently.
Sudden: ocurring or done quickly and unexpectedly or without warning.
Claimed: state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof.
Analysis comment:
Therefore: for that reason; consequently.
Sudden: ocurring or done quickly and unexpectedly or without warning.
Claimed: state or assert that something is the case, typically without providing evidence or proof.
Analysis comment:
It explains too that for a long time scientists have claimed that the main cause of dinosaur extinction occurred more than 65 million years ago, after a meteorite fell on what is now the Yucatan Peninsula (Mexico). The violent blow opened up a 200-km underwater crater that killed them and 70% of the planet's living species. One study, however, questions this theory.
On the one hand, researchers say that the dinosaurs were in trouble long before the asteroid. Since the appearance of toxic plants mixed with the inability of this species to associate the flavors of food with danger, they were just a step away from disappearing.
And they explained too that the plants were developing and generating toxic defenses, while the dinosaurs continued to consume them despite the damage they did to them. This theory gained strenght because in the fossil record, years before the asteroid fell, were the first flowering plants that coincided with the gradual disappearance of the species.
On the other hand, they also studied birds and crocodiles as both are considered to be the descendants of dinosaurs.
The birds didn't develop taste adversions, but visual characteristics, that is to say, they knew exactly that they couldn't eat if they wanted to survive.
However, crocodiles, like dinosaurs, didn't develop learned aversions to taste.
Therefore, to conclude, this article is a succes for paleontology because that article says that the asteroid played a fundamental role in the extinction of the species, but the plants has already caused the disappearance of a large number of dinosaurs, that is to say, that the predominant view of dinosaur extinction based on the impact of asteroids implies that the disappearance of dinosaurs should have been sudden and the effects shoud have been generalized. But, the evidence from this research shows that dinosaurs began to disappear long before the asteroid's impact and continued to disappear gradually for millions of years later.


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