Ask A Scientist© Weather Archive

Name         Anna
status       student
age          18

Question -   What is the theory behind, the dinosaurs dying due to
climatic changes?

Anna,

Aside from the intolerance of a hot-climate dinosaur
having to face a rapidly cooling climate (one of the
main theories of dinosaur extinction), the cooler
climate would also cause the plants to dwindle that
vegetarian dinosaurs would eat, thereby leaving no
vegetarian dinosaurs for the flesh-eating dinosaurs
to eat.

One of the theories is that a rapidly cooling climate
could have been caused by a massive collision of a meteor
or comet with the Earth, as seems to have occurred long
ago in at least two locations, Central America and in
northwestern Iowa, where very large craters have been
found.  There may be other very large impact craters
on Earth that have not been discovered yet.  These may
have been made at about the same time or at very different
times (which could explain the multiple extinctions that
are theorized.

David Cook
Argonne National Laboratory
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