Image:header-trans

Dinosaur Extinction Theories

According to the fossil record, dinosaurs appeared approximately 230 million years ago, lasted for over 150 million years, and disappeared approximately 66 million years ago. That's probably a bit loose and some books are now stating that they never really disappeared at all but are living on as birds.

But it does leave the curious question, at 66 Ma just where did the non-avian dinosaurs go, and why? For the last 40 years there have been two major theories that have battled on, with one slowly declining, and the other taking precedence.

Though there are a few detractors, the main theory currently being advocated as the cause of the dinosaur's extinction is the meteor theory.

Since the impact hypothesis for the demise of the dinosaurs was first proposed more than 30 years ago, many scientists have come to believe the meteor caused the mass extinction and wiped out the dinosaurs
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2011/07/110712211016.htm

But theories abound, like conspiracy theories, and though some of them are humourous, most are legit attempts at a plausible reason for the extinction. For example we have Aliens to Constipation being proposed. Aliens of course, though maybe a serious proposal would not be admissable. Curiously the constipation proposal does have some merit. Supposedly the plant life changed a bit and the herbivores couldn't adjust to the change and became constipated and they all died.

Possible? Maybe. Likely? Probably not.

So with that thought, here is a list I found on a web site which are most likely quite reasonable so worth mentioning here.

1. Extreme volcanic activity and accompanying acid rain.

The meteor theory also proposes acid rain. So which is it?

"A lot of people have speculated that volcanoes mattered to K-Pg, and we're saying, 'no, they didn't," said Pincelli Hull, an assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Yale and lead author of the study, which published Thursday in Science.
"What our study does is take 40 years of research and adds a bunch of new research. It combines this in the most quantitative tests you can do and it really doesn't look like it (was the volcanoes)."

They found that at least 50% or more of the major outgassing from the Deccan Traps occurred well before the asteroid impact, and only the impact coincided with the mass extinction event.

"Volcanic activity in the late Cretaceous [period] caused a gradual global warming event of about two degrees, but not mass extinction," said Henehan
https://edition.cnn.com/2020/01/16/world/dinosaur-extinction-volcanoes-asteroid-scn/index.html

2. Changes in the Earth's orbit that caused climactic cooling. The dinosaurs couldn't adapt but furry mammals could.

Well there were big dinosaurs and teeny weeny little dinosaurs. In short we could add other reptiles to this list, any size. So we have snakes, tortoises, turtles, and crocodiles. That's a good start but it makes the point. The dinosaurs weren't taken out by climactic cooling.

3. Mammals eating dinosaurs' eggs. Same answer as above.

4. Large amounts of methane changing the Earth's atmosphere.

Is this one related to the dinosaurs passing wind? I'm not kidding--that has actually been proposed. And this is supposed to cause a greenhouse effect. Again, anything in the atmosphere that is going to take out the dinosaurs is going to take out a lot of other susceptible species, such as snakes, birds, frogs, salamanders, and tortoises. Maybe even turtles and sharks as they were supposedly back there too.

5. The herbivorous dinosaurs ate all the vegetation, and the carnivores at all the herbivores.

Sorry but this one does remind me of the Mexican Cat and Rat Ranch hoax that did the rounds some years ago. The cats ate the rats and the rats ate the cats so there was no feeding costs involved.
But could there be any truth in this suggestion? If all the vegetation was destroyed by some disaster, the herbivores would die out and that would be followed by the carnivores. And the most likely scenario for this? The meteor impact theory releasing a destructive force of up to 921 billion Hiroshima A-bombs would definitely do it. But hey, that's a separate extinction theory itself!

6. A nearby supernova bathing the Earth in deadly radiation.

Definitely takes out the dinosaurs. Everything else too. Nothing survives this.

But what about the current main theory of a meteor causing the extinction?

The Meteor
The Meteor
The Meteor
Point of impact: The Chicxulub crater at the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico.

The Chicxulub crater lends support to the theory postulated by the late physicist Luis Alvarez and his son, geologist Walter Alvarez, that the extinction of numerous animal and plant groups, including non-avian dinosaurs, may have resulted from a bolide impact (the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event). Luis and Walter Alvarez, at the time both faculty members at the University of California, Berkeley, postulated that this enormous extinction event, which was roughly contemporaneous with the postulated date of formation for the Chicxulub crater, could have been caused by just such a large impact.
http://web.archive.org/web/20211228051109/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater#Chicxulub_and_mass_extinction

A new study led by Yale University confirms a long-held theory about the last great mass extinction event in history and how it affected Earth’s oceans.

The researchers say it is the first direct evidence that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago coincided with a sharp drop in the pH levels of the oceans — which indicates a rise in ocean acidity.

“The ocean acidification we observe could easily have been the trigger for mass extinction in the marine realm,” said senior author Pincelli Hull, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Yale.
https://news.yale.edu/2019/10/21/mystery-solved-ocean-acidity-last-mass-extinction
See ref 1.

A study of boron isotopes in the tests of foraminifera that lived deep in the oceans and near their surface just after the K-Pg boundary event has revealed that ocean water suddenly became more acidic (Henehan, M.J. and 13 others 2019. Rapid ocean acidification and protracted Earth system recovery followed the end-Cretaceous Chicxulub impact. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Online; DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1905989116).
https://earthlogs.org/2019/10/25/what-followed-the-k-pg-extinction-event/

The asteroid hit an area of carbonate rock containing a large amount of combustible hydrocarbons and sulphur, much of which was vaporized, thereby injecting sulfuric acid aerosols into the stratosphere, which might have reduced sunlight reaching the Earth's surface by more than 50%, and would have caused acid rain. The resulting acidification of the oceans would kill many organisms that grow shells of calcium carbonate. At Brazos section, the sea surface temperature dropped as much as 7 °C (13 °F) for decades after the impact. It would take at least ten years for such aerosols to dissipate, and would account for the extinction of plants and phytoplankton, and subsequently herbivores and their predators.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220824015031/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous–Paleogene_extinction_event

Gregory Retallack, a soil scientist at the University of Oregon, Eugene, who had earlier proposed that the gap is due to acid rain dissolving fossils after the asteroid impact,
https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2011/07/case-closed-dino-killer

Earth itself became toxic. When the asteroid struck, it vaporized layers of limestone, releasing into the atmosphere a trillion tons of carbon dioxide, ten billion tons of methane, and a billion tons of carbon monoxide; all three are powerful greenhouse gases. The impact also vaporized anhydrite rock, which blasted ten trillion tons of sulfur compounds aloft. The sulfur combined with water to form sulfuric acid, which then fell as an acid rain that may have been potent enough to strip the leaves from any surviving plants and to leach the nutrients from the soil.
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died

Then acid rain, formed from the nitrous oxide and sulfates clogging the atmosphere, began to hammer down on the surface, killing plants and animals and even dissolving rocks. This rain would have been as corrosive as battery acid and its most devastating effect would have been to destroy the shells of small marine organisms. p.165.
Flying Dinosaurs: How fearsome reptiles became birds, John Pickrell, 2014.

What quickly became apparent based on the available data was that instead of the short-term effects of dust on the planet's climate, what really killed the dinosaurs was sulphuric acid.

Following the asteroid's impact, tiny droplets of sulphuric acid formed high up in the air after the resulting darkness, to such a scale that it killed vast numbers of flora and fauna.

The effects of the sulphuric acid on the climate was so severe that the computer simulations found it would have taken at least 30 years for the global climate to recover.
https://www.siliconrepublic.com/innovation/dinosaurs-extinction-simulation

And as the years roll, more and more evidence from the rocks and the fossils is being found giving strong support to the meteor extinction theory. They have even found the smoking gun, a 170 km wide*, 20 km deep crater in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico.
* See ref 2.


Image:Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.

Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.

Image:Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.

Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.

Image:Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.

Approximate location of the Chicxulub impact crater, in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.

But though the vast majority of evolutionists are coming into line and accepting the meteor extinction theory there is a small group of discordant voices who have spoken out against it:

What do we do with these impact scenarios? Naturally, we compare them with the evidence from the geological record. Birds, tortoises, and mammals live on land and breathe air: the evidence from the K-T boundary shows that they survived the K-T boundary event. Therefore they and the air they breathed weren't set on broil for several hours. To put it simply, these scenarios did not happen.
History of Life, Richard Cowen, 2000, p.290.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/events/cowen2b.html


Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes

Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes.

Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes

Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes.

Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes
Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes Image:Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes

Birds, Tortoises, Mammals: example 2 extant monotremes.

The survival of birds is the strangest of all the K-T boundary events, if we are to accept the catastrophic scenarios. Smaller dinosaurs overlapped with larger birds in size and in ecological roles as terrestrial bipeds. How did birds survive while dinosaurs did not? Birds seek food in the open, by sight; they are small and warm-blooded, with high metabolic rates and small energy stores. Even a sudden storm or a slightly severe winter can cause high mortality among bird populations. Yet an impact scenario, according to its enthusiasts, includes "a nightmare of environmental disasters, including storms, tsunamis, cold and darkness, greenhouse warming, acid rains and global fires." There must be some explanation for the survival of birds, turtles, and crocodiles through any catastrophe of this scale, or else the catastrophe models are wrong.
History of Life, Richard Cowen, 2000, p.295.
https://ucmp.berkeley.edu/education/events/cowen3b.html


Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles

Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles.

Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles

Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles.

Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles
Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles Image:Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles

Birds, Turtles, Crocodiles.

The theory is now widely accepted by the scientific community. Some critics, including paleontologist Robert Bakker, argue that such an impact would have killed frogs as well as dinosaurs, yet the frogs survived the extinction event.
http://web.archive.org/web/20211228051109/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater


Image:Frogs

Frogs

Image:Frogs

Frogs

Image:Frogs

Frogs

there was no extinction in the insects, a group that should have been the most sensitive to a global catastrophe predicted by the impact advocates. ... Nor do the birds show much extinction, even though they too should have been vulnerable (Chiappe 1995). ...
some extreme impact scenarios postulate extensive acid rain bathing the earth for a long time after the impact. However, the survival of amphibians shows that this is simply a fantasy (Weil 1984). Amphibians breathe through their porous skins and are sensitive to slight changes in the acidity of their watery habitat. Even now, the slightly more acidic conditions of lakes and ponds due to human-induced acid rain are causing frogs and salamanders to die out rapidly. If the entire earth had been subjected to a huge acid bath, there simply would not be a frog or salamander alive on the earth today. p.38.
After the Dinosaurs, Donald R. Prothero, 2006.


Image:Frogs, Salamanders Image:Frogs, Salamanders

Frogs, Salamanders

Image:Frogs, Salamanders Image:Frogs, Salamanders

Frogs, Salamanders

Image:Frogs, Salamanders Image:Frogs, Salamanders

Frogs, Salamanders

And note, from the previous quotes we read above about the meteor theory:

"the event rapidly acidified the oceans"

"The resulting acidification of the oceans"

"Following the asteroid's impact, tiny droplets of sulphuric acid formed high up in the air ... it killed vast numbers of flora and fauna"

"acid rain dissolving fossils after the asteroid impact"

"This rain would have been as corrosive as battery acid"

"what really killed the dinosaurs was sulphuric acid"

"The effects of the sulphuric acid on the climate was so severe"

"at least 30 years for the global climate to recover"

If sulphuric acid killed the dinosaurs, then it definitely would have killed all the birds, frogs, and salamanders!

In short, if the meteor theory is correct, then we should have no birds, turtles, crocodiles, frogs, and salamanders.

There would have also been other susceptible species back there with the dinosaurs. We could probably add to the list snakes, tortoises, and sharks. And maybe even insects and mammals as these have also been mentioned by the evolutionists!

Simply a Fantasy

And just what does all of this mean?

Because we do currently have snakes, birds, frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, tortoises, turtles, and sharks [and probably quite a few other species that should not have survived], the meteor extinction theory is a complete fantasy.

Interestingly one of the evolutionists speaking out against the meteor theory even alluded to this:

"this is simply a fantasy"!!

And if the meteor extinction theory is a fantasy, then so is all of the evidence supporting it!

Unfortunately that includes fossils, rock layers, and even the smoking gun itself, the whole 170 km wide*, 20 km deep Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico!!
* See ref 2.

Because we do currently have snakes, birds, frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, tortoises, turtles, and sharks [and probably quite a few other species that should not have survived], the meteor extinction theory is a complete fantasy!

And what final conclusions can we make about all of this?

The rock layers should no longer be considered to give a reliable record of the past history of this planet. At least below 6000 years!

A complete load of junk

Similarly the fossil record below 6000 years should no longer be considered to give a reliable record of past life on this planet. Unfortunately that includes the non-avian dinosaurs. All of them.

The whole 170 km wide*, 20 km deep Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico should no longer be considered to give a reliable record of an impact that supposedly occurred 66 million years ago!
* See ref 2.

It would appear that when this planet came into existence all of this stuff was fabricated along with it.

But who or what would build into this planet many thousands of feet of rock layers containing a complete load of junk?

As a Christian I have absolutely no problem with that question. None whatsoever.

But I think the evolutionists are in a real lot of trouble.


Image:Species that should be extinct! Birds Image:Species that should be extinct! Tortoises Image:Species that should be extinct! Mammals
Image:Species that should be extinct! Crocodiles Image:Species that should be extinct! Frogs Image:Species that should be extinct! Salamanders Image:Species that should be extinct! Turtles

Some species that should be extinct!

Image:Species that should be extinct! Birds Image:Species that should be extinct! Tortoises Image:Species that should be extinct! Mammals
Image:Species that should be extinct! Crocodiles Image:Species that should be extinct! Frogs Image:Species that should be extinct! Salamanders Image:Species that should be extinct! Turtles

Some species that should be extinct!

Image:Species that should be extinct! Birds Image:Species that should be extinct! Frogs Image:Species that should be extinct! Salamanders
Image:Species that should be extinct! Crocodiles Image:Species that should be extinct! Tortoises Image:Species that should be extinct! Turtles
Image:Species that should be extinct! Mammals

Some species that should be extinct!

Postscript

The Evolutionists are now running in backpedalling mode, trying to dig themselves out of a hole larger than the one the meteor supposedly made 66 million years ago. They may be writing that the effect of the impact was not as bad as originally thought and that as a result the frogs and salamanders and other susceptible species survived.

I give an answer to this on my Backpedalling Evolutionists page.

And they are definitely writing a lot of possible ways the birds may have survived but when you look closely at the suggestions, it's a bit of a stretch.

I also have some curious pages dedicated to how the birds may have survived.


REFERENCES


Note: when I mention the extinction of the dinosaurs this is not making a clear distinction. By the extinction of the dinosaurs I mean in general the non-avian dinosaurs.

https://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/extinction/Other.html

15,000 feet of rock layers added. This is just a guestimate. It could be much much more.

Ma - million years ago.
Ba - billion years ago.

K-T, K-Pg boundary, extinction event
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event

Chicxulub
pronounced [and my choice of a few]:
"Chik-shoo-loob"

Experts Reaffirm Asteroid Impact Caused Mass Extinction
MARCH 4, 2010
Some scientists have suggested that the Chicxulub (“chik-shoo-loob”) impact in Mexico ...
https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2010/03/experts-reaffirm-asteroid-impact-caused-mass-extinction/

Chicxulub impact site
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicxulub_impact_-_artist_impression.jpg
This painting by Donald E. Davis depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. The impact spewed hundreds of billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, producing a worldwide blackout and freezing temperatures which persisted for at least a decade. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds.
Author: Donald E. Davis
Public Domain

Meteor Crater Location in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.
"North America laea location map"
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_America_laea_location_map.svg
Attribution: Uwe Dedering
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

1.

Mystery solved: ocean acidity in the last mass extinction
By Jim Sheltonoctober 21, 2019
A new study led by Yale University confirms a long-held theory about the last great mass extinction event in history and how it affected Earth’s oceans. The findings may also answer questions about how marine life eventually recovered.

The researchers say it is the first direct evidence that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago coincided with a sharp drop in the pH levels of the oceans — which indicates a rise in ocean acidity.

“The ocean acidification we observe could easily have been the trigger for mass extinction in the marine realm,” said senior author Pincelli Hull, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Yale.

The new study also may have settled a question regarding ocean pH levels leading up to K-Pg. Some researchers have theorized that volcanic eruptions starting hundreds of thousands of years before K-Pg had progressively made Earth more prone to a mass extinction event. This should be reflected in a steady decline in ocean pH levels up until the extinction.

“What we can show is that there is no real signal of gradual pH decline in the ocean in the lead-up to K-Pg,” Henehan said. “Our results do not support any major role for volcanic activity in priming the world for extinction.”
https://news.yale.edu/2019/10/21/mystery-solved-ocean-acidity-last-mass-extinction


2. 170 km wide crater? There appears to be little unanimity on the actual diameter of the crater with some estimates up to 200 km or more. The reasons for choosing 170 km are given in more detail on my Chicxulub Impactor page. Also mentioned on my Meteor Theory page.
Note: the larger diameters are obviously what's more easy to see but after supposedly 66 million years of erosion etc. The true original diameter may no longer be obvious and only discernable using special technical methods.

Bird pics
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain

Frog
Temporal range:
Early Jurassic - Present, 200-0 Ma
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (literally without tail in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their origins may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago.
They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, with declines in frog populations often viewed as early warning signs of environmental damage.
For the skin to serve as a respiratory organ, it must remain moist. This makes frogs susceptible to various substances they may encounter in the environment, some of which may be toxic and can dissolve in the water film and be passed into their bloodstream.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Litoria_phyllochroa.JPG
Attribution: Froggydarb
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Crocodile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nile_croc_couple_690V1510_-_Flickr_-_Lip_Kee.jpg
Attribution: Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

Platypus + Echidna pics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monotreme_collage.jpg
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right).
Constituent files:
File:Platypus BrokenRiver QLD Australia.jpg
File:Long-beakedEchidna.jpg
File:Echidna in the Karawatha Forest - Radford.jpg
File:Zaglossus bartoni - MUSE.JPG
Attribution: Ypna
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Monotremes
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous-Recent
[pic]
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right)
Monotremes (/ˈmɒnətriːmz/, from Greek μονός, monos ('single') and τρῆμα, trema ('hole'), referring to the cloaca) are one of the three main groups of living mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria) and marsupials (Metatheria).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme

The platypus is one of the few monotremes still in existence today. The egg-laying mammal was only recently discovered to have lived during the Jurassic period. After analyzing a Teinolophos jawbone in 2008, University of Texas paleontologist Tim Rowe discovered that platypuses dated back as far as 122 million years ago.
Platypuses are one of only two mammalian species that lay eggs, the other being echidnas, or spiny anteaters.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/animals-as-old-as-dinosaurs_n_6982300

Teinolophos
Temporal range: Aptian ~120-113 Ma Teinolophos is a prehistoric species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It is known from four specimens, each consisting of a partial lower jawbone collected from the Wonthaggi Formation at Flat Rocks, Victoria, Australia. It lived during the Aptian age of the Lower Cretaceous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teinolophos

Platypus
Evolution, paleontology, and classification
Aquatically adapted platypus-like monotremes probably evolved from a more-generalized terrestrial monotreme. The first occurrence in the fossil record of a platypus-like monotreme is from about 110 million years ago, in the early Cretaceous Period, when Australia was still connected to South America by Antarctica.
https://www.britannica.com/animal/platypus

Salamander
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SpottedSalamander.jpg
Attribution: Camazine at English Wikipedia
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Salamander
Temporal range:
Late Jurassic - Present, 160-0 Ma
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by a lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander

Tortoise
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain

Turtle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_Box_Turtle_Digon3_re-edited.jpg
Florida Box Turtle
Attribution: Jonathan Zander (Digon3)
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

"Chicxulub crater location"
constructed using
"North America laea location map" by Uwe Dedering, used under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Cropped and approximate crater location circled.

"Chicxulub crater location" is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 by Stephen Robert Buckley.


Creative Commons licenses

CC BY-SA 3.0
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

CC BY-SA 4.0
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


Note: when I mention the extinction of the dinosaurs this is not making a clear distinction. By the extinction of the dinosaurs I mean in general the non-avian dinosaurs.

https://www.enchantedlearning.com/subjects/dinosaurs/extinction/Other.html

15,000 feet of rock layers added. This is just a guestimate. It could be much much more.

Ma - million years ago.
Ba - billion years ago.

K-T, K-Pg boundary, extinction event
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event
The Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) extinction event (also known as the Cretaceous–Tertiary (K–T) extinction) was a sudden mass extinction of three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, approximately 66 million years ago.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event

Chicxulub
pronounced [and my choice of a few]:
"Chik-shoo-loob"

Experts Reaffirm Asteroid Impact Caused Mass Extinction
MARCH 4, 2010
Some scientists have suggested that the Chicxulub (“chik-shoo-loob”) impact in Mexico ...
https://www.jsg.utexas.edu/news/2010/03/experts-reaffirm-asteroid-impact-caused-mass-extinction/

Chicxulub impact site
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Chicxulub_impact_-_artist_impression.jpg
This painting by Donald E. Davis depicts an asteroid slamming into tropical, shallow seas of the sulfur-rich Yucatan Peninsula in what is today southeast Mexico. The aftermath of this immense asteroid collision, which occurred approximately 65 million years ago, is believed to have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs and many other species on Earth. The impact spewed hundreds of billions of tons of sulfur into the atmosphere, producing a worldwide blackout and freezing temperatures which persisted for at least a decade. Shown in this painting are pterodactyls, flying reptiles with wingspans of up to 50 feet, gliding above low tropical clouds.
Author: Donald E. Davis
Public Domain

Meteor Crater Location in the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico, near the town of Chicxulub.
"North America laea location map"
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:North_America_laea_location_map.svg
Attribution: Uwe Dedering
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

1.

Mystery solved: ocean acidity in the last mass extinction
By Jim Sheltonoctober 21, 2019
A new study led by Yale University confirms a long-held theory about the last great mass extinction event in history and how it affected Earth’s oceans. The findings may also answer questions about how marine life eventually recovered.

The researchers say it is the first direct evidence that the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago coincided with a sharp drop in the pH levels of the oceans — which indicates a rise in ocean acidity.

“The ocean acidification we observe could easily have been the trigger for mass extinction in the marine realm,” said senior author Pincelli Hull, assistant professor of geology and geophysics at Yale.

The new study also may have settled a question regarding ocean pH levels leading up to K-Pg. Some researchers have theorized that volcanic eruptions starting hundreds of thousands of years before K-Pg had progressively made Earth more prone to a mass extinction event. This should be reflected in a steady decline in ocean pH levels up until the extinction.

“What we can show is that there is no real signal of gradual pH decline in the ocean in the lead-up to K-Pg,” Henehan said. “Our results do not support any major role for volcanic activity in priming the world for extinction.”
https://news.yale.edu/2019/10/21/mystery-solved-ocean-acidity-last-mass-extinction


2. 170 km wide crater? There appears to be little unanimity on the actual diameter of the crater with some estimates up to 200 km or more. The reasons for choosing 170 km are given in more detail on my Chicxulub Impactor page. Also mentioned on my Meteor Theory page.
Note: the larger diameters are obviously what's more easy to see but after supposedly 66 million years of erosion etc. The true original diameter may no longer be obvious and only discernable using special technical methods.

Bird pics
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain

Frog
Temporal range:
Early Jurassic - Present, 200-0 Ma
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order Anura (literally without tail in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-frog" appeared in the early Triassic of Madagascar, but molecular clock dating suggests their origins may extend further back to the Permian, 265 million years ago.
They are also seen as environmental bellwethers, with declines in frog populations often viewed as early warning signs of environmental damage.
For the skin to serve as a respiratory organ, it must remain moist. This makes frogs susceptible to various substances they may encounter in the environment, some of which may be toxic and can dissolve in the water film and be passed into their bloodstream.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frog

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Litoria_phyllochroa.JPG
Attribution: Froggydarb
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Crocodile
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Nile_croc_couple_690V1510_-_Flickr_-_Lip_Kee.jpg
Attribution: Lip Kee from Singapore, Republic of Singapore
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 2.0 Generic license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/2.0/deed.en

Platypus + Echidna pics
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Monotreme_collage.jpg
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right).
Constituent files:
File:Platypus BrokenRiver QLD Australia.jpg
File:Long-beakedEchidna.jpg
File:Echidna in the Karawatha Forest - Radford.jpg
File:Zaglossus bartoni - MUSE.JPG
Attribution: Ypna
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/deed.en

Monotremes
Temporal range: Early Cretaceous-Recent
[pic]
Four of the five extant monotreme species: platypus (top-left), short-beaked echidna (top-right), western long-beaked echidna (bottom-left), and replica eastern long-beaked echidna (bottom-right)
Monotremes (/ˈmɒnətriːmz/, from Greek μονός, monos ('single') and τρῆμα, trema ('hole'), referring to the cloaca) are one of the three main groups of living mammals, along with placentals (Eutheria) and marsupials (Metatheria).
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monotreme

The platypus is one of the few monotremes still in existence today. The egg-laying mammal was only recently discovered to have lived during the Jurassic period. After analyzing a Teinolophos jawbone in 2008, University of Texas paleontologist Tim Rowe discovered that platypuses dated back as far as 122 million years ago.
Platypuses are one of only two mammalian species that lay eggs, the other being echidnas, or spiny anteaters.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/animals-as-old-as-dinosaurs_n_6982300

Teinolophos
Temporal range: Aptian ~120-113 Ma Teinolophos is a prehistoric species of monotreme, or egg-laying mammal. It is known from four specimens, each consisting of a partial lower jawbone collected from the Wonthaggi Formation at Flat Rocks, Victoria, Australia. It lived during the Aptian age of the Lower Cretaceous.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Teinolophos

Platypus
Evolution, paleontology, and classification
Aquatically adapted platypus-like monotremes probably evolved from a more-generalized terrestrial monotreme. The first occurrence in the fossil record of a platypus-like monotreme is from about 110 million years ago, in the early Cretaceous Period, when Australia was still connected to South America by Antarctica.
https://www.britannica.com/animal/platypus

Salamander
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:SpottedSalamander.jpg
Attribution: Camazine at English Wikipedia
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

Salamander
Temporal range:
Late Jurassic - Present, 160-0 Ma
Salamanders are a group of amphibians typically characterized by a lizard-like appearance, with slender bodies, blunt snouts, short limbs projecting at right angles to the body, and the presence of a tail in both larvae and adults.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Salamander

Tortoise
https://www.publicdomainpictures.net
Public domain

Turtle
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Florida_Box_Turtle_Digon3_re-edited.jpg
Florida Box Turtle
Attribution: Jonathan Zander (Digon3)
This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Unported license.

"Chicxulub crater location"
constructed using
"North America laea location map" by Uwe Dedering, used under CC BY-SA 3.0.
Cropped and approximate crater location circled.

"Chicxulub crater location" is licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 by Stephen Robert Buckley.


Creative Commons licenses

CC BY-SA 3.0
Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

CC BY-SA 4.0
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 4.0 International.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/


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Stephen Buckley
E-mail: greatesthoax [at] duck.com
Last revised: 8 Apr 2023.
Construction started about 5 Nov 2020.


Page design/construction Stephen Buckley 2020.