Smart Birds: Extinction Event Survival Solved?

Smart Birds: Extinction Event Survival Solved?

This is the page that started it all. The very genesis and building blocks for my novel The First Birds on the Moon can be found here. It's all here!

Evolutionists tell us that the birds survived the K-Pg extinction event when three-quarters of the plant and animal species on Earth, along with the non-avian dinosaurs, supposedly perished 66 million years ago.
http://web.archive.org/web/20230328021230/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous–Paleogene_extinction_event

But evolutionists are completely puzzled as to how in the world the birds did survive the conflagration which befell the dinosaurs:

Of the many great dinosaurian lineages, only the birds made it through the mass extinction at the end of the Cretaceous – but nobody is quite sure why. p.162.
Flying Dinosaurs: How fearsome reptiles became birds, John Pickrell, 2014.

Early members of the palaeognath lineage survived (the group that includes ostriches and emus), as did members of the wildfowl and gamebird lineage, as did members of the lineage that led to seabirds, hawks, perching birds, and so on.
Why these bird groups survived when other dinosaur groups didn't is a good question, and one that hasn't been answered satisfactorily. p.208.
Dinosaurs: How they lived and evolved. Darren Naish & Paul M. Barrett, CSIRO Publishing, 2018.

And just what did happen? There have been many theories about the demise of the dinosaurs but the current accepted one by the majority of evolutionists is that it was destruction from outer space, swinging away from volcanism:

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

"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

In the March 5, 2010 edition of the journal Science, an international panel of 41 experts in geology, paleontology and other related fields, after an exhaustive review of the data, declared an end to a 30 year controversy over what triggered the extinction of the dinosaurs – an asteroid or volcanoes. The panel ruled in favor of the asteroid, a theory first put forth in 1980 by one of Berkeley Lab’s greatest scientists, the late Nobel laureate Luis Alvarez, and his son Walter, a geologist with UC Berkeley.
https://newscenter.lbl.gov/2010/03/09/alvarez-theory-on-dinosaur/

Several studies in 2020, like Hull et al. and Chiarenza et al. show quantitatively that the Cretaceous–Paleogene Mass Extinction about 66 million years ago was mostly a result of a meteorite impact (the Chicxulub impactor) and not a result of volcanism.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220112153447/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event

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

Before proceeding we really need to look at the possible scenarios the evolutionists have suggested how the birds may have survived:

Avians may have been able to survive the extinction as a result of their abilities to dive, swim, or seek shelter in water and marshlands. Many species of avians can build burrows, or nest in tree holes, or termite nests, all of which provided shelter from the environmental effects at the K–Pg boundary.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event

This seems reasonable until you actually read just what they were trying to survive:

Within two minutes of slamming into Earth, the asteroid, which was at least six miles wide, had gouged a crater about eighteen miles deep and lofted twenty-five trillion metric tons of debris into the atmosphere. Picture the splash of a pebble falling into pond water, but on a planetary scale. When Earth's crust rebounded, a peak higher than Mt. Everest briefly rose up. The energy released was more than that of a billion Hiroshima bombs, ...
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died

A comet or an asteroid—we aren't sure which—collided with the Earth, hitting what is now the Yucatan Peninsula of Mexico. It was about six miles (ten kilometers) wide, or about the size of Mount Everest. It was probably moving at a speed of around 67,000 miles per hour (108,000 kilometers per hour), more than a hundred times faster than a jet airliner. When it slammed into our planet, it hit with the force of over 100 trillion tons of TNT, somewhere in the vicinity of a billion nuclear bombs' worth of energy. It plowed some twenty-five miles (forty kilometers) through the crust and into the mantle, leaving a crater that was over 100 miles (160 kilometers) wide. p.315.
The RISE and FALL of the DINOSAURS
A New History of Their Lost World, STEVE BRUSATTE. 2018.

This comet is 10 kilometres in diameter, taller than Mt Everest or larger than the Martian moon Deimos. This harbinger of destruction is travelling at a speed of more than 100000 kilometres per hour and its energy of motion has the destructive force of 100 million hydrogen bombs. p.163.
Flying Dinosaurs: How fearsome reptiles became birds, John Pickrell, 2014.

The rock was an asteroid, essentially a small planet or a large meteorite. It measured up to 7 kilometres (4 miles) across, the size of Manhattan, and as it drove into the Earth's crust, just off the coast of the Yucatan peninsula in modern Mexico, it blasted out a deep hole and caused shattering of the crust to an even greater depth, and over a much wider radius, than the crater itself (see pl. xix).
The impact had a kinetic energy of more than 10 billion megatonnes. This is a thousand times the amount of energy contained in all the world's nuclear weapons arsenals. p.254.
The Dinosaurs Rediscovered, MICHAEL J. BENTON, 2019.

A THOUSAND TIMES THE AMOUNT OF ENERGY CONTAINED IN ALL THE WORLD'S NUCLEAR WEAPONS ARSENALS!!!

The Chicxulub impactor had an estimated diameter of 11-81 kilometers (6.8-50.3 mi), and delivered an estimated energy of 21-921 billion Hiroshima A-bombs (between 1.3x10²⁴ and 5.8x10²⁵ joules, or 1.3-58 yottajoules). For comparison, this is ~100 million times the energy released by the Tsar Bomba, a thermonuclear device ("H-bomb") that remains the most powerful human-made explosive ever detonated, which released 210 petajoules (2.1x10¹⁷ joules, or 50 megatons TNT).
http://web.archive.org/web/20211228051109/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater

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.

In October 2019, researchers reported that the event rapidly acidified the oceans producing ecological collapse and long-lasting effects on the climate, and, accordingly, was a key reason for the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_impactor

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

It is difficult to understand just how much protection would be given by water and marshlands, tree-holes and termite nests, in the face of a destructive force up to an estimated energy of 21-921 billion Hiroshima A-bombs! And that followed by storms, tsunamis, cold and darkness, greenhouse warming, global fires and extensive acid rain bathing the earth for a long long time after the impact.

And there were billions and trillions of tons of dangerous chemicals released into the atmosphere.

So just how would the birds have gone with all of this happening?

Bird: Canary. Very vulnerable to airborne poisons!

Canaries were used "in coal mines to detect carbon monoxide and other toxic gases before they hurt humans". "Canaries, like other birds, are good early detectors of carbon monoxide because they're vulnerable to airborne poisons."
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/story-real-canary-coal-mine-180961570/

Birds are vulnerable to airborne poisons!!

Since birds are vulnerable to airborne poisons it is very clear that they should have gone completely extinct along with the dinosaurs when the meteor supposedly impacted our planet 66 million years ago. In fact all susceptible species like birds, salamanders, and frogs, probably would have gone extinct even before the dinosaurs!

And on my other pages I take the direction [quoting some of the dissenting evolutionists] that this is all a fantasy which means that the rocks, fossils, etc are no longer a reliable record of the past and past life of this planet.

Of course that is forcing evolutionists into a very awkward direction.

However, today I am going to propose a very novel solution to this problem that just may get the evolutionists out of this hole, if they are happy to accept it.

And they don't really have much choice. They have already stated that they really don't know how the birds survived the K-Pg Extinction Event.

We consider the following...

Smart Birds

Well they certainly didn't survive by seeking shelter in water and marshlands, or by hiding in burrows, or tree holes, or termite mounds.

So how did they do it?

Time may just give us the answer [not that I believe this]:

Scientists have created a massive database of fossils discovered all around the world in a painstaking project that covers 165 million years of dinosaur evolution.
https://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-4279612/Interactive-map-dinosaur-fossil-Earth.html

165 million years? That is an awful lot of time. And evolutionists talk of human evolution being about 300,000 years.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220516191551/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_evolution

That's nearly a drop in the bucket compared to 165 million years of dinosaur evolution [again, not that I believe this].

But it is a very interesting point to ponder.

Now think on this. Of this 300,000 years only the last 250 years or so from about 1760 bring us to the industrial revolution and the technological age we now live in.
http://web.archive.org/web/20220515095448/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_Revolution

And from approximately 1900 to 1970 we went from Kitty Hawk to the Moon! It was barely 70 years!!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wright_Flyer
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moon_landing

And if there was any evolution of intelligence through the 165 million years of dinosaur evolution just where could it have ended up and which dinosaurs were the most likely to be leading in this area?

Biggest Dinosaurs Had Brains the Size of Tennis Balls

An advanced member of the largest group of dinosaurs ever to walk the Earth still had a relatively puny brain, researchers say.

The scientists analyzed the skull of 70-million-year-old fossils of the giant dinosaur Ampelosaurus, discovered in 2007 in Cuenca, Spain, in the course of the construction of a high-speed rail track connecting Madrid with Valencia.

"This saurian may have reached 15 meters (49 feet) in length; nonetheless its brain was not in excess of 8 centimeters (3 inches)," study researcher Fabien Knoll, a paleontologist at Spain's National Museum of Natural Sciences, said in a statement.
https://www.livescience.com/26539-giant-sauropods-small-brains.html

A new study suggests that size may not matter all that much when it comes to brains. This despite other studies that suggest that the bigger the brain, the smarter the animal (including humans). And it probably comes as no surprise to avid Science Today readers that the smaller, smarter brainpower comes from corvids—crows, ravens, and jackdaws.

"There is still so much we need to understand and learn about the relationship between intelligence and brain size, as well as the structure of a bird's brain," says study lead author Can Kabadayi of Lund University. "But this study clearly shows that bird brains are not simply birdbrains after all!"
https://www.calacademy.org/explore-science/brain-size-for-the-birds

there has been a long and sometimes controversial tradition of trying to predict intelligence on the basis of brain size, from the assumption that a bigger brain must be a better brain.

the key finding from this study was that the crows' performance equaled or exceeded that of the primates tested by MacLean et al. (2014), despite the absolute volume of the crows’ brains being much smaller. For example, ravens' performance equaled that of chimpanzees, despite the volume of chimpanzees’ brains being more than 25 times that of ravens. Similarly, jackdaws’ performance outranked that of capuchin monkeys, despite a more than 12-fold difference in brain volume.

the solution may lie in comparing the numbers of neurons rather than brain size, or in comparing the sizes of particular brain regions between species. ... a more recent study by Olkowicz and colleagues (2016), ... found that birds' brains contained many more neurons than mammalian (and even primate) brains of a similar mass. In fact, the brains of songbirds and parrots contained about twice as many neurons as those of similarly sized primates
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13420-016-0247-9¹

In general, birds have relatively large brains compared to their head size.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bird_intelligence

It is pretty clear from this that the brains of the dinosaur group were definitely the avian dinosaurs. It is little wonder that they survived the K-Pg Extinction Event.

And given that human evolution is supposedly only about 300,000 years, just how intelligent could the avian dinosaurs have got given millions of years of evolution?

And given this enormous amount of time and allowing for evolution of avian dinosaur intelligence it really shouldn't be silly to ask the question: could they have achieved industrial revolution level and beyond?

Very curiously, the possibility of an earlier civilization before the human race has caught the imagination of some people.

One person who was studying global warming visited a scientist and asked if an industrial civilization would trigger a climate shift. The conversation then got very interesting:

"Wait a second," he said. "How do you know we're the only time there's been a civilization on our own planet?"

... the civilizations he was asking about would have existed many millions of years ago. ... "Yeah," I stammered. "Could we tell if there’d been an industrial civilization that deep in time?"
... Gavin called the idea the Silurian hypothesis, after an old Doctor Who episode with intelligent reptiles.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-earths-only-civilization/557180/

This is a question we are definitely interested in here!

could researchers find clear evidence that an ancient species built a relatively short-lived industrial civilization long before our own? ... There are fossils, of course. But the fraction of life that gets fossilized is always minuscule and varies a lot depending on time and habitat. It would be easy, therefore, to miss an industrial civilization that lasted only 100,000 years—which would be 500 times longer than our industrial civilization has made it so far.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-earths-only-civilization/557180/

When we burn fossil fuels, we’re releasing carbon back into the atmosphere that was once part of living tissues. ... The more fossil fuels we burn, the more the balance of these carbon isotopes shifts. ... Increases in temperature also leave isotopic signals. These shifts should be apparent to any future scientist who chemically analyzes exposed layers of rock from our era.

Fifty-six million years ago, Earth passed through the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). During the PETM, the planet's average temperature climbed as high as 15 degrees Fahrenheit above what we experience today. ... There are also other events like the PETM in Earth’s history that show traces like our hypothetical Anthropocene signal.

Are these events indications of previous nonhuman industrial civilizations? Almost certainly not. While there is evidence that the PETM may have been driven by a massive release of buried fossil carbon into the air, it's the timescale of these changes that matter. The PETM’s isotope spikes rise and fall over a few hundred thousand years. ... There have been geological periods where Earth’s CO2 has been as high or higher than it is today, but never before in the planet's multibillion-year history has so much buried carbon been dumped back into the atmosphere so quickly. So the isotopic spikes we do see in the geologic record may not be spiky enough to fit the Silurian hypothesis's bill.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-earths-only-civilization/557180/
Electricity high voltage poles pic supplied.

And there was one really big problem in all of this...

If an earlier species’s industrial activity is short-lived, we might not be able to easily see it. The PETM’s spikes mostly show us Earth’s timescales for responding to whatever caused it, not necessarily the timescale of the cause. So it might take both dedicated and novel detection methods to find evidence of a truly short-lived event in ancient sediments. In other words, if you’re not explicitly looking for it, you might not see it.
https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2018/04/are-we-earths-only-civilization/557180/

Could we get lucky?

And if we are looking for it, could we possibly find it? Or perhaps some hint of it?

I found the following...

Asteroid Impact 65* Million Years Ago Triggered A Global Hail Of Carbon Beads
Date: May 5, 2008
Source: Indiana University

The asteroid presumed to have wiped out the dinosaurs struck the Earth with such force that carbon deep in the Earth's crust liquefied, rocketed skyward, and formed tiny airborne beads that blanketed the planet, say scientists from the U.S., U.K., Italy, and New Zealand in this month's Geology.

The beads, known to geologists as carbon cenospheres, ...

The carbon cenospheres were deposited 65 million years ago next to a thin layer of the element iridium -- an element more likely to be found in Solar System asteroids than in the Earth's crust. The iridium-laden dust is believed to be the shattered remains of the 200-km-wide asteroid's impact. Like the iridium layer, the carbon cenospheres are apparently common. They've been found in Canada, Spain, Denmark and New Zealand.

But the cenospheres' origin presented a double mystery. The cenospheres had been known to geologists only as a sign of modern times -- they form during the intense combustion of coal and crude oil. Equally baffling, there were no power plants burning coal or crude oil 65 million years ago, and natural burial processes affecting organic matter from even older ages -- such as coals from the 300-million-year-old Carboniferous Period -- had simply not been cooked long or hot enough.

"Carbon cenospheres are a classic indicator of industrial activity," Harvey said. "The first appearance of the carbon cenospheres defines the onset of the industrial revolution."
https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2008/05/080505120702.htm
* Earlier documents used 65 Ma for the K-Pg Extinction Event. The more current value of 66 Ma is now commonly used.

And supposing, just supposing, that there was an industrial civilization existing at the time of the meteor impact. The carbon cenospheres found could be from both, with the majority from the impact completely masking the indicators of the civilization.

Sure it's a stretch, but it is actually possible. By the above studies if we were looking for a possible advanced intelligence it would clearly be the avian dinosaurs. And if we were looking for any hints of industrial activity, the cenospheres found in the 66 Ma rock layers could give it.

And even if the industrial activity was only a few hundred years, it would be completely masked by the fallout from the meteor impact.

And with this thought, it may have given the avian dinosaurs just enough time to get to a technological level to deal with the incoming meteor.

In fact, they may have even had a few years to get ready. Getting to a reasonably advanced technological level they could have easily been scanning the heavens and found the meteor with an Earth-impacting trajectory giving them plenty of time to prepare.

This could have included large underground bunkers. There are supposedly some today, in some countries, as large as a city block or more, capable of sustaining industry, technology, and life as we know it now.

Realizing that life on the planet is inter-dependent they would have also had zoos for the most susceptible animals that would not have survived the coming destruction.

This would explain the survival of many species that the dissenting evolutionists have mentioned on my other pages and some others that I found. Apart from birds, this list contained snakes, frogs, salamanders, crocodiles, turtles, sharks, and monotremes!

You may ask if the avian dinosaurs got to a technological level why couldn't all of these other species too. The probability of them all getting there at the Extinction Point is probably zero.

And many species just wouldn't have the physical ability to construct an advanced civilization. One may ask this question about the avian dinosaurs but being the brains of the dinosaur group it would be a simple matter of them harnessing some of the lower stronger dinosaurs to help them in any construction etc. It's really not a stretch at all.

And they may have even tried to take out the meteor on its final approach!

Image:Meteor take out

But as we know this was not successful. With the discovery of the impact crater in the Yucatan peninsula of Mexico it is assumed that the meteor did impact the planet causing the supposed loss of 75% of all species.

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

So what happened?

And here we come to utter and complete speculation. Simply put we don't know but I am willing to make 2 guesses:

1. Reverse Evolution. Well whatever for some reason after the Extinction Event at 66 Ma, and there was a gap of 1 million years before the first Paleocene bird fossils have been found, they went downhill in intelligence to roughly what the birds are like now. It's as good a guess as any and still better than what the evolutionists are trying to sell us.

2. This one's more interesting. After the Extinction Event at 66 Ma and for whatever reason the avian dinosaurs were just not getting on that well, and things really fell apart with some sort of an avian dinosaur world war with missiles and bombs flying everywhere!

Image: Avian Dinosaur World War

And with the near destruction of all avian dinosaurs from this war the survivors of this cataclysm were so damaged by the carnage and destruction they sort of went biologically downhill and so here we are today.

Again, being so close to the K-Pg Extinction Event, any carnage here, along with their industrial footprint, would have been completely masked by the fallout from the meteor.

And just as a curious aside, this world war may have actually been the main reason for the loss of nearly 75% of all species. And all these years the evolutionists have been blaming the meteor for this.

So there it is.

This is my spin on how the avian dinosaurs may have survived the K-Pg Extinction Event.

And whatever you think of this, it is better than what the evolutionists are trying to sell us.

The birds did not survive by seeking shelter in water and marshlands, or by hiding in burrows, or tree holes, or termite mounds.

And some evolutionists can see it.

And as a result they are now trying to dig themselves out of a hole larger than the one supposedly made by the meteor when it struck the Earth.

The above solution could help them out a bit, if they want it.

If you read my other pages you will see why they are in a real lot of trouble!

Postscript

Could the avian dinosaurs theoretically have made it to the Moon?

According to the evolutionists we got to the Moon after 300,000 years of evolution.

But the avian dinosaurs supposedly had millions of years of intelligence evolution by the time they got to 66 Ma.

So if evolution was true this would be a distinct possibility.

If you read my other pages you will see that I am taking the view that the dinosaur fossils are in question.

But having said that, this is where it gets interesting. Really really interesting.

Even if the dinosaur fossils are in question it may still be quite possible that some sort of "evidence" could be found on the Moon supporting the premise that the avian dinosaurs did indeed make it to a space age level of technology before they retrogressed after the K-Pg Extinction Event 66 million years ago.

Of course they may not have gotten quite that far so this is completely up in the air. And even if they did, theoretically, they may have shown no interest in the Moon.

So it will be interesting to see what happens.

It's a really novel thought though. Enjoy!

The First Birds on the Moon

It is also an interesting thought to reimagine the 1964 movie adaptation of H.G.Well's novel "The First Men in the Moon"

where a group of astronauts on the Moon "discover a Union Jack flag on the surface and a note mentioning Katherine Callender, which claims the Moon for Queen Victoria."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/First_Men_in_the_Moon_(1964_film)

In this reimagination, the astronauts would be finding something older. A lot older. 66 million years older.

REFERENCES

1.
Bird brains: Does absolute size matter?
Jackie Chappell
Learning & Behavior volume 45, pages 1–2 (2017)
https://link.springer.com/article/10.3758/s13420-016-0247-9

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.

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. The event caused the extinction of all non-avian dinosaurs.
http://web.archive.org/web/20230328021230/https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous–Paleogene_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
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA.

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.

Avisaurus

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Avisaurus_and_Brachychampsa_by_tomozsaurus.jpg
Illustration of the bird Avisaurus archibaldi peacefully coexisting with the alligatorid Brachychampsa montana.
Attribution: Tomozsaurus
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Cropped + remixed.

Avisaurus (meaning "bird lizard") is a genus of enantiornithine bird from the Late Cretaceous of North America.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avisaurus

Avisaurus Brett-Surman and Paul 1985 (bird)
Reptilia - Enantiornithes - Avisauridae
PaleoDB taxon number: 38616
Age range: 70.6 to 66.043 Ma
http://www.fossilworks.org/

Rahonavis

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rahonavis_NT.jpg
Rahonavis
Attribution: Nobu Tamura
Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 Unported license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/deed.en
Cropped + remixed.

Rahonavis is a genus of bird-like theropods from the Late Cretaceous (Maastrichtian, about 70 mya) of what is now northwestern Madagascar. ... Rahonavis was a small predator, at about 70 centimetres (2.3 ft) long and 0.45-2.27 kg (1-5 lbs), with the typical Velociraptor-like raised sickle claw on the second toe.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rahonavis

Rahonavis ostromi Forster et al. 1998 (bird)
Reptilia - Avetheropoda
PaleoDB taxon number: 64133
Age range: 70.6 to 66.043 Ma
http://www.fossilworks.org/

Canary
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Domestic_canary_2.jpg
A yellow domestic canary on a cage.
Attribution: Yavor Uzunov
Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/deed.en
Cropped.

Meteor
https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Comet-trail/60011.html
"Comet trail"
Vector image of a flying comet with fire trail.
Public domain
Cropped + remixed.

Industrial buildings
https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/industrial-buildings-silhouettes-set_11060802.htm
"Industrial buildings silhouettes set"
Image by macrovector on Freepik
Free license
Cropped with a few lines added and background removed.

Electricity Power Grid
https://www.freepik.com/free-photo/electricity-high-voltage-pole-sky_1175837.htm
"Electricity high voltage pole and sky"
Image by evening_tao on Freepik
Free license
Cropped.

Star observatory surrounded with forest
https://publicdomainvectors.org/en/free-clipart/Big-space-telescope/89259.html
"Big space telescope"
Public domain
Remixed.

Missiles, rockets
https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/various-ballistic-missiles-flat-set_9650925.htm
"Various ballistic missiles flat set"
Designed by pch.vector / Freepik
Free license
Cropped + remixed.

https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/types-military-missiles-rockets-vector-illustrations-set-collection-different-ballistic-air-bombs-artillery-shells-warheads-isolated-white-background-weapons-aircraft-concept_23548234.htm
"Types of military missiles or rockets vector illustrations set. collection of different ballistic air bombs, artillery shells, warheads isolated on white background. weapons, aircraft concept"
Designed by pch.vector / Freepik
Free license
Cropped + remixed.

And with apologies to NASA:
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Apollo_CSM_lunar_orbit.jpg
"Apollo CSM lunar orbit"
The Apollo 15 Service Module as viewed from the Apollo Lunar Module. Image has been cropped and rotated.
Date 2 August 1971
Attribution: NASA
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA.
Added dinosaur insignia: Dino flag + text: AvianDino LunarOne.

and with some thoughts gleaned from...
NASA Lunar Plaque 1971
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:A15-plaque.jpg
"Apollo 15 plaque"
Attribution: NASA
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA.

Dino lunar plaque stone base
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Serpentinite_slab_20220727.jpg
"Serpentinite slab 20220727"
Cut slab of serpentinite found at Broad Creek Memorial Scout Reservation, Harford County, Maryland. The slab is probably cut from the abandoned quarry at the reservation, operated by the Green Marble Company from the 1860s to 1890s.
Attribution: Jstuby
Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication.
Cropped + remixed.

Flagpole
https://www.freepik.com/free-vector/usa-flag-with-stand_1877446.htm
"Usa flag with stand"
Designed by flatart / Freepik
Free license
Cropped + remixed.

Dinosaur silhouettes
https://pixabay.com/illustrations/dinosaur-tyrannosaurus-allosaurus-3539642/
"Dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus"
Designed by Parker_West / Pixabay
License: Free
Cropped + remixed.

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pangaea_to_present.gif
"Pangaea to present"
The breakup of Pangaea and motion of their continents to their present-day positions
Attribution: Kious, Jacquelyne; Tilling, Robert I.; Kiger, Martha, Russel, Jane
Public domain
Cropped to Cretaceous period.

The Cretaceous pic is stated for 65 Ma. But with current thinking perhaps this should have been 66 Ma? And was the pic constructed for exactly 65 Ma or just the end of the Cretaceous which is now considered to be at 66 Ma? Just some curious thoughts.

Lunar horizon from Tranquility Base
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AS11-37-5503_-_Apollo_11_-_Apollo_11_Mission_image_-_Lunar_horizon_from_Tranquility_Base_-_NARA_-_16683586.jpg
"AS11-37-5503 - Apollo 11 - Apollo 11 Mission image - Lunar horizon from Tranquility Base"
Subject Terms: Apollo 11 Flight, Moon, Lunar Landing Sites
Unknown author or not provided
1967 – 1972
This file is in the public domain in the United States because it was solely created by NASA.
Cropped + remixed.

Naming the Birds...
Decided to go with:
https://thestoryshack.com/tools/lizard-name-generator/
Iisthsha,Ssratsthihs,Thlyissa
ASTRONAUTS
Trying plaque text:
BRONTO 2
ALLOSAUR
FEB 66 MA
Note: the font couldn't handle 66.04328
so just used 66 written sixty six
Again, BRONTO 2 had to be done as
BRONTO
TWO

And yes, before anyone leaps in with this...
English? It doesn't matter. I could have used a language scrambler and then use the font, but really at the end of the day this just didn't really matter.
An Ma date? Sure, like someone trying to sell old Roman coins with a B.C. inscription--you know they are fake. This is just for us. And hey, it is just a story. Enjoy!

Lovecraft's Diary Font
This font was created by Nate Piekos of Blambot Comic Fonts. It's freeware to use as you'd like.
Free for personal use
Free for commercial use

Footprint patterns approximated from:
https://www.photos-public-domain.com/2018/07/27/dinosaur-footprints-in-sandstone/
"DINOSAUR FOOTPRINTS IN SANDSTONE"
Public domain
2 from here: Iisthsha & Ssratsthihs.
and
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Magnoavipes_(theropod_dinosaur_track)_(Dakota_Sandstone,_Lower_Cretaceous;_Dinosaur_Ridge,_Colorado,_USA)_18.jpg
"Magnoavipes (theropod dinosaur track) (Dakota Sandstone, Lower Cretaceous; Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado, USA)"
Magnoavipes sp. - dinosaur track in the Cretaceous of Colorado, USA. Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado has numerous dinosaur fossils, including bones and tracks. The most common track type at the site is Caririchnium leonardii, which was made by an iguanodontid dinosaur. A less common track is this - a slender, three-toed print called Magnoavipes, which was made by a theropod dinosaur - apparently Ornithomimus.
Attribution: James St. John
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/deed.en
used for Thlyissa.
The birds are avian but these footprints may not be but they look OK. And Ornithomimus is a bird-like non-avian dinosaur. So again, it's close enuff!

My constructed pics etc

"Smart Birds"
constructed using
"Avisaurus and Brachychampsa" by tomozsaurus, used under CC BY 3.0,
"Rahonavis" by Nobu Tamura, used under CC BY 3.0,
"Comet trail" courtesy publicdomainvectors.org,
"Various ballistic missiles flat set" by pch.vector / Freepik, used under Free license, and
"Types of military missiles or rockets vector illustrations set. collection of different ballistic air bombs, artillery shells, warheads isolated on white background. weapons, aircraft concept" by pch.vector / Freepik, used under Free license.

"Avian dino observatory"
constructed using
"Big space telescope" courtesy publicdomainvectors.org,
"Avisaurus and Brachychampsa" by tomozsaurus, used under CC BY 3.0, and
"Rahonavis" by Nobu Tamura, used under CC BY 3.0.

"Meteor take out"
constructed using
"Avisaurus and Brachychampsa" by tomozsaurus, used under CC BY 3.0,
"Rahonavis" by Nobu Tamura, used under CC BY 3.0,
"Comet trail" courtesy publicdomainvectors.org,
"Various ballistic missiles flat set" by pch.vector / Freepik, used under Free license, and
"Types of military missiles or rockets vector illustrations set. collection of different ballistic air bombs, artillery shells, warheads isolated on white background. weapons, aircraft concept" by pch.vector / Freepik, used under Free 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.

"Avian dinosaur war"
constructed using
"Avisaurus and Brachychampsa" by tomozsaurus, used under CC BY 3.0,
"Rahonavis" by Nobu Tamura, used under CC BY 3.0,
"Various ballistic missiles flat set" by pch.vector / Freepik, used under Free license, and
"Types of military missiles or rockets vector illustrations set. collection of different ballistic air bombs, artillery shells, warheads isolated on white background. weapons, aircraft concept" by pch.vector / Freepik, used under Free license.

"Avian dino lunar one"
constructed using
"Apollo CSM lunar orbit" by NASA, Public Domain, and
"Dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus" by Parker_West / Pixabay, License: Free.

"Dino plaque rock"
constructed using
"Serpentinite slab 20220727" by Jstuby, used under CC0 1.0,
"Dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus" by Parker_West / Pixabay, License: Free,
"AS11-37-5503 - Apollo 11 - Apollo 11 Mission image - Lunar horizon from Tranquility Base" by NASA, Public Domain,
with land masses approximated from
"Pangaea to present" by Kious, Jacquelyne; Tilling, Robert I.; Kiger, Martha, Russel, Jane, Public domain,
with footprints approximated from
"DINOSAUR FOOTPRINTS IN SANDSTONE" courtesy photos-public-domain.com, and
"Magnoavipes (theropod dinosaur track) (Dakota Sandstone, Lower Cretaceous; Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado, USA)" by James St. John, used under CC BY 2.0,
and conceptual design from
"Apollo 15 plaque" by NASA, Public Domain.

"Lunar landscape"
constructed using
"Serpentinite slab 20220727" by Jstuby, used under CC0 1.0,
"Dinosaur, Tyrannosaurus, Allosaurus" by Parker_West / Pixabay, License: Free,
"AS11-37-5503 - Apollo 11 - Apollo 11 Mission image - Lunar horizon from Tranquility Base" by NASA, Public Domain,
"Usa flag with stand" by flatart / Freepik, used under Free license,
with land masses approximated from
"Pangaea to present" by Kious, Jacquelyne; Tilling, Robert I.; Kiger, Martha, Russel, Jane, Public domain,
with footprints approximated from
"DINOSAUR FOOTPRINTS IN SANDSTONE" courtesy photos-public-domain.com, and
"Magnoavipes (theropod dinosaur track) (Dakota Sandstone, Lower Cretaceous; Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado, USA)" by James St. John, under CC BY 2.0,
and conceptual design from
"Apollo 15 plaque" by NASA, Public Domain.

"Dino lunar plaque"
constructed using footprints approximated from
"DINOSAUR FOOTPRINTS IN SANDSTONE" courtesy photos-public-domain.com, and
"Magnoavipes (theropod dinosaur track) (Dakota Sandstone, Lower Cretaceous; Dinosaur Ridge, Colorado, USA)" by James St. John, used under CC BY 2.0,
with land masses approximated from
"Pangaea to present" by Kious, Jacquelyne; Tilling, Robert I.; Kiger, Martha, Russel, Jane, Public domain,
and conceptual design from
"Apollo 15 plaque" by NASA, Public Domain.

"Smart Birds", "Avian dino observatory", "Meteor take out", "Avian dinosaur war", "Avian dino lunar one", "Dino plaque rock", "Lunar landscape" and "Dino lunar plaque", "Chicxulub Crater Location", are licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0 by Stephen Robert Buckley.

Creative Commons licenses

CC0 1.0
Creative Commons CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication
https://creativecommons.org/publicdomain/zero/1.0/

CC BY 2.0
Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/

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

CC BY 4.0
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 Unported license.
https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

CC BY-SA 3.0
Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 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/

Avisaurus

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