Dinosaurs extinct after giant asteroid impact, not volcanic activity

We don’t have to tell you that the dinosaurs are extinct. Even the smallest child knows that. But scientists were still unclear about how the creatures ended. Until now, because research has shown that the impact of a giant asteroid is the only possible reason for the extinction of the dinosaurs.

Scientists were divided into three camps when it came to the extermination of the dinosaurs. They all agree that a huge catastrophe is the big culprit, but what that catastrophe was exactly, they disagreed.

Volcanic activity

The first camp claims that volcanic activity has left the dinosaurs extinct. The activity around present-day India is said to have caused the climate on our entire planet to change completely, causing the dinosaurs and almost all plants to disappear.

Asteroid

The second camp chooses the option of a giant asteroid. It had a diameter of about ten kilometers and caused the Chicxulub crater in today’s Mexico.

The impact catapulted hundreds of kilos of debris into the air. And that has floated between the earth and the sun for years, triggering a long, cold period. The dinosaurs couldn’t live like that, so they all disappeared.

Last drop

The third camp goes for a combination of the two. The volcanic activity around present-day India was there, they say there. It caused life on Earth to be unstable, the culmination of which would have been the impact of the gigantic asteroid.

Only possible option

British researchers have now provided an unambiguous answer to the question. Only the asteroid has caused the dinosaurs to become extinct.

To come to that conclusion, the researchers built several models. Each model shows the ecological consequences (climate change, influence on the habitat of dinosaurs …) of the different options.

“When we produced the scenarios of both the options separately, as well as the options together, we see that the asteroid is the only event that could completely destroy the habitats suitable for dinosaurs,” said Alfio Alessandro Chiarenza. The doctor is the lead author of dinosaur extinction research.

Saved?

The scientists even go a step further. The volcanic activity wouldn’t have wiped out life on Earth at all, but could have saved it even after the fatal impact of the asteroid.

Because of the volcanic activity around India, the temperature on earth would rise, which could have prevented the cold period after the impact.

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