An asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago “had to be responsible” for the dinosaurs’ disappearance, according to a new study on the effects of the impact.
Researchers at Imperial College London created mathematical models of the impact of volcanic activity and a large asteroid would have on dinosaur habitats.
The space rock that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago created a global winter, destroying ‘suitable environments’ for the largest animals ever to roam Earth.
Some experts claim that volcanic eruptions in a region of India known as the Deccan traps led to their extinction, but the researchers proved that this was not the case.
They discovered that an asteroid impact off the coast of Mexico would have destroyed all suitable habitats, but the volcanic activity would leave areas around the equator.
The research team says the lava flows from Deccan Traps volcanoes that lasted thousands of years actually helped life recover from the impact of asteroids.
An individual of Ankylosaurus magniventris, a large species of armored dinosaur, witnesses the impact of an asteroid, which fell on the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. Artist impression
Lead author Dr. Alessandro Chiarenza of Imperial College London said the environmental effects of asteroids “decimated dinosaur-friendly environments.”
“In contrast, the effects of the intense volcanic eruptions were not strong enough to substantially disrupt global ecosystems,” he said.
“Our study confirms, for the first time quantitatively, that the only plausible explanation for the extinction is the impact of the winter that eradicated dinosaur habitats worldwide.”
The asteroid drowned a 120-mile-wide crater on the Yucatan peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. In minutes, everything within hundreds of miles was cremated.
An asteroid approximately 7 miles wide hit Central America 66 million years ago and this catastrophic event affected the global climate causing a cascading effect on ecosystems around the world. Artist impression
Temperatures fell, acid rain fell, and the sun was blocked for months, causing the extinction of 90 percent of plants and 70 percent of animals.
The team combined geological climate markers and mathematical models with the rainfall and temperature that each dinosaur species needed to thrive.
They were then able to map where these conditions would continue to exist in a world after an asteroid attack or massive volcanism.
Only an asteroid attack removed all potential habitats, while volcanism left some viable regions around the equator, the team discovered from their models.
Senior co-author Dr. Alex Farnsworth of the University of Bristol said that instead of just using the geological record to model the effect on climate that the asteroid or volcanism could have caused worldwide, they added a ‘ ecological dimension ‘.
This allowed them to reveal how these climatic fluctuations severely affected ecosystems and better map the impact on dinosaurs.
The city-sized asteroid sent an incandescent column of vaporized rock into the atmosphere at speeds close to ten miles per second.
Co-author Dr. Philip Mannion of University College London said the impact of asteroids on global habitats produced “a blue screen of death for dinosaurs.”
Volcanoes also release gases and particles that block the sun, but they also expel carbon dioxide, and it was CO2 that really helped life return to the planet.
The space rock that crashed into Earth 66 million years ago created a global winter, destroying ‘suitable environments’ for the largest animals ever to roam Earth.
In the short term, the particles and gases that block the Sun have a greater effect: they trigger a “volcanic winter” but in the long term “they fall out of the atmosphere.”
Meanwhile, CO2, a greenhouse gas, remains and accumulates in the atmosphere, heating the planet, British researchers said.
After the initial drastic freeze caused by the asteroid, volcanic warming restored many habitats, helping new life evolve after the disaster.
Dr. Chiarenza said that the volcanic eruptions that occurred around the time of the asteroid could have reduced the effects on the environment caused by the impact.
“Particularly in accelerating the rise in temperatures after the impact of winter,” he said.
“This volcano-induced warming helped drive the survival and recovery of animals and plants that achieved extinction with many groups that expanded immediately afterward, including birds and mammals.”
The findings have been published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
KILLING DINOSAURS: HOW A CITY SIZE ASTEROID ELIMINATED 75 PERCENT OF ALL ANIMAL AND PLANT SPECIES
About 65 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were exterminated, and more than half of the world’s species were destroyed.
This mass extinction paved the way for the emergence of mammals and the appearance of humans.
The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a possible cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event.
The asteroid crashed into a shallow sea in what is now the Gulf of Mexico.
The collision released a huge cloud of dust and soot that triggered global climate change, eliminating 75 percent of all flat and animal species.
The soot needed for such a global catastrophe could only come from a direct impact on rocks in shallow waters around Mexico, which are especially rich in hydrocarbons, the researchers say.
About 10 hours after the impact, a massive tsunami shook the Gulf coast, according to experts.
About 65 million years ago, non-avian dinosaurs were exterminated, and more than half of the world’s species were destroyed. The Chicxulub asteroid is often cited as a possible cause of the Cretaceous-Paleogene extinction event (stock image)
This caused earthquakes and landslides in areas as far away as Argentina.
But while the waves and eruptions were the creatures living at that time not only suffered from the waves, the heat was much worse.
While investigating the event, investigators found small rock particles and other debris that shot up into the air when the asteroid crashed.
Called spherules, these tiny particles covered the planet with a thick layer of soot.
Experts explain that losing sunlight caused a complete collapse in the aquatic system.
This is because the phytoplankton base of almost all aquatic food chains would have been removed.
It is believed that the more than 180 million years of evolution that brought the world to the Cretaceous point were destroyed in less than the life of a Tyrannosaurus rex, which is about 20 to 30 years old.
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