dinosaur: The Extinction of the Dinosaurs

Many explanations have been offered for the worldwide extinction of the dinosaurs at the end of the Mesozoic after 160 million years of existence. One widely accepted theory is that one or more asteroids or comets hit the earth, lifting massive amounts of debris and sulfur in the air and blocking the sunlight from reaching the earth's surface. The 1991 discovery of the Chicxulub crater on the Yucatán peninsula in Mexico lent support to this idea. Another widely accepted theory is that the extinctions followed the huge volcanic eruptions that created the lava flows of the Deccan Traps in what is now India. It also has been suggested that both an impact or impacts and the eruptions may be responsible for the extinctions. (See mass extinction for more information.) No theory perfectly describes why nonavian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, and many marine organisms were affected by the extinction, when many mammals and other animals (e.g., turtles and crocodiles) survived. The extinction of the dinosaurs led to the geologically rapid evolution of mammals from a group of relatively small creatures to a diverse one that included many megafauna.

Sections in this article:

• Introduction
• The Extinction of the Dinosaurs
• Dinosaur Traits and Classification
• Bibliography

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