Dinosaurs: New Extinction Causes?

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

Volcanoes could have caused dinosaur deaths - LiveScience - MSNBC.com

It appears that a giant space rock might not have been the sole reason behind the massive dinosaur extinction. In fact, it has been indicated that volcanoes might have been the true cause. They not only would've killed much during eruptions, but were proven to cause a more extreme climate change in comparison to a asteroid hitting the planet.

What do you guys think? Do you think that only one played a role, a mixture of the both, or even something else? If both, did one have a greater effect than the other?

I personally think that the volcanoes themselves probably played a larger role in the extinction than the asteroid, but there is no doubt that the asteroid played a big role. In fact, because the volcanoes haven't really been proven yet, I shouldn't really put my money by them, but in my mind, I don't see that lone asteroid causing a world-wide extinction.

For reference, here are some images of the crater which is was left by the supposedly responsible rock:
Chicxulub Picture 1
-This has a slide show that explained the effects and has very interesting paintings.
University of Texas at Arlington
-This is a wider view of the crater in comparison to the planet. Seems relatively small, right?

Edit: Please don't post if you are just going to spout nonsense about how dinosaurs are a government conspiracy or something like that. The idea that the world was only created a few thousand years ago is a load of hooey, so any religious nuts out there who care to argue with me should just stop right here.

[Silent_Wolf]

I'm not really sure how I feel about the whole thing; anything could have killed the dinosaurs off. No matter what proof the scientists get, there's always going to be some kind of argument over it.

That's my take, now I shut my mouth. XD

[cwer]

(This is one of my faveorite topics XD! I want to be a paleontologist when Im older.)

Back on topic :P -

I think it was many things. It was a very nasty and violent time back then. It seemed that it was not a very good time to live back then, did it? Anyways, my point once again is that it was most likely lots of things. Might I reminend you that the picture of the 'supposed' astroiod that hit earth is merely an artist concept. Yes,that crater is very small compared to it, but its not like the one that looks 'tiny' is small or it was not devistating. That shot (or grapic map) was obisvly taken from space. So it must have been pretty big in accual life(i mean when you veiw it from the side. in real life.) To move on, it could not have been just a volcano, even if there were alot of eruptions in a short period of time. But then again, If there were many volcanoes erupting in a short amount of time, (I mean a pyroclastic flow like the one in A.D 79 in pompeii) the atmosphere would have been really coludy, covering the earth. Almoast like the second planets coving aroud it of ash. So the plants would not grow and the plat eaters would Die and then the meat eaters would die. But, how did the flying reptiles live?

I have to admit this IS ifact a confusing topic, but thats how I feel about it. I hope that did not hurt anyones felings what I said (I doubt it did :P.)

~Emily

[silvercyclone]

I don't want to start anything but...
dinosaurs are a government conspiracy and the world was only created a few thousand years ago, so any non- religious people out there who want to argue should just stop right here.

^^^^^^^^If you didn't get it I was Joking.^^^^^^^^

Ok what I really wanted to say was I couldn't care less. I watched this theory on NG and want to know how they plan on proving it.
Has any one heard of "the missing link" idea? the thing people came from was a fish (I don't think so but it's good for the topic) If that's the case then things could have easily survived in the water which also forces me to bring up Pangaea. I want to see the meteor that can disrupt half the world. It was all water on one side wasn't it? But if there was so much volcanic activity there should have been a lot of new islands for cwer's flying reptiles.

[Silent_Wolf]

Actually, Pangea "disappeared" because of continental plate shifting.

[Miranda_]

^This. By about the time of the end of the Cretaceous (sp?) period, the continents were well on their way to being as they are now.

I personally think that the Earth's climate was going thru another cycle, and was just getting too cold for the dinosaurs, but perfect for the mammals. Wonder if any dinos were b*tching about the amount of methane in the air ruining the climate and demanding that other dinos try and save the planet? XD

[Silver_Wolf_Kitty]

I bet they were xD Probably campaigned to stop passing gas as well. Then again, that is all just a government conspiracy xD

Cwer, have you seen images of the current "Ring of Fire"? What that is is a wide circle of volcanoes that are still active and are also frequently linked with seismic activity.
http://www.worldatlas.com/aatlas/infopage/ringfire.gif
While this wasn't the pattern during that time period, I think that volcanoes would be fairly significant if combined with seismic activity(as they often are).

As for the creatures themselves, it has been proven that a lot of species went extinct(though there was an earlier, larger extinction too) or simply adapted. The atmosphere itself was predicted to have cleared up in about a decade, so the creatures themselves would've evolved. In fact, it has been indicated that they became less complex after this event due to the atmospheric changes.

[STRANGER]

i don't believe that dinasours are exist in this world.. even in universe..