It's official: An asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

Source: Reuters

LONDON (Reuters) – A giant asteroid smashing into Earth is the only plausible explanation for the extinction of the dinosaurs, a global scientific team said on Thursday, hoping to settle a row that has divided experts for decades.

A panel of 41 scientists from across the world reviewed 20 years' worth of research to try to confirm the cause of the so-called Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which created a "hellish environment" around 65 million years ago and wiped out more than half of all species on the planet.

Scientific opinion was split over whether the extinction was caused by an asteroid or by volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in what is now India, where there were a series of super volcanic eruptions that lasted around 1.5 million years.

The new study, conducted by scientists from Europe, the United States, Mexico, Canada and Japan and published in the journal Science, found that a 15-kilometre (9 miles) wide asteroid slamming into Earth at Chicxulub in what is now Mexico was the culprit.



Read more: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100304/sc_nm/us_dinosaurs_asteroid

[tekisui]

1. This is really funny as late breaking news.

[Beetwasher]

5. Indeed!

:thumbsup: :rofl:

Umm, we're allowing 65 million year old stories in LBN?

[No Elephants]

70. The story falls within the "new info about pre-Internet days" exception to DUs posting in LBN rules.

[Imajika]

2. But, isn't the earth only around 10,000 years old?

Joking, joking.

But seriously, there are actually well educated people at my office who believe this. They've apparently decided carbon dating is a hoax.

[Cirque du So-What]

8. Yes, I too have the misfortune of knowing some of these people

However, they're divided in their belief. Some contend that dinosaur bones were 'planted' deep in the geological strata by the devil to deceive humanity, while others maintain that their bronze-age sky deity carefully placed them deep underground in order to test their faith.

:crazy:

[Imajika]

16. The ones at my office...

...tend to try to avoid the subject for fear of being ridiculed mercilessly. However, if you get them riled up they will usually claim carbon dating is all a scientific scam or hoax of some kind. A few won't come right out and say that, but you can tell that is what they really believe by the way the conversation always winds up with them questioning the science of carbon dating. These are the people that also reject AGW by the way. Climate change is a marxist plot dontcha know!

[Enthusiast]

43. They never understand

that C-14 only works back to 50,000 years and then ONLY on tissue not fossils (rock). So you can tell them that C-14 has no dinosaur application.

You might share this link with them. http://www.talkorigins.org/faqs/dating.html

[tclambert]

54. To be fair, they probably use C-14 dating as shorthand for all radiometric dating methods.

'Cause see Robert Gentry posited that radioactive decay of everything except polonium happened at different rates several thousand years ago. Of course, if Uranium 238 decayed as fast as he insists, the entire Earth would have melted.

[smirkymonkey]

45. Don't you mean "Jesus Horse" bones?

[Demeter]

38. I've Never Dated Carbon

It might be an improvement over men....

[xocet]

49. Yet....

Men (and people in general) are carbon-based: (cue the Immanence by Stuart Davis, a unique artist):

excerpt:
"Every body wants to taste
a little something carbon-based
Sex is proof the Holy Ghost
crawls around in stuff that’s gross
Yeah!

There’s a serpent in my body
right below my belly
When I crave an apple
you are redder than an orchard

We tangle up like rubber bands
We make more noise than pots and pans
Bodies join in novel ways
Before they’re buried and decayed"

[No Elephants]

68. Dating men (or women) IS dating carbon.

[ixion]

3. "official" and "plausable" != what actually happened...

I'm not saying that it didn't, just saying that "plausibility" is not synonymous to the actual event.

[harun]

63. Totally agree, scientist's need to speak more like lawyers, meaning

not in absolute terms. They simply should say "Based on the existing evidence we feel the most likely scenario is an asteroid strike".

[Xipe Totec]

4. Interesting that th Deccan Traps are located close to the antipode of Chicxulub

Could the meteor have triggered the volcanism as well?

[Donnachaidh]

6. isn't that a theory being touted for the permian extinctions as well?

Just watched a show within the last few weeks (can't remember if it was Science channel or NatGeo) that concluded that a meteor triggered vulcanism which wiped out 90% of the life on the planet at that time.

[flyingfysh]

10. didn't you hear the news on that extinction?

They think they found the crater! Under 2 miles of ice, in Antarctica (seriously!). It's a crater 300 miles wide.

[Donnachaidh]

22. oh no kidding!

Would you have any links?

[flyingfysh]

66. here's a link

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/06/060601174729.htm

[Ignis]

57. Well, the two theories are still independent.

The vulcanism might have been triggered by the impact, or it might not have been. :shrug:

[AlphaCentauri]

7. Or the release of Methane gas

[dipsydoodle]

9. Don't be ridiculous

Baked beans didn't exist then - did they ? :shrug:

[Donnachaidh]

23. ...

:rofl:

[AlphaCentauri]

62. LOL but seriously something to think about it

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=102&topic_id=4294236&mesg_id=4294310

[RaleighNCDUer]

20. I've always wondered that myself.

Any idea if the iridium layer is above, below or buried within the flows of the Deccan Traps?

[bhikkhu]

25. The deccan event began 1 million years before the asteroid

The layer of iridium identifying the asteroid event is encased within the long record of the volcanism in the deccan area.

So, no, the meteor had nothing to do with the volcanism.

(on edit: I read that in a book about extinction events last year, but if you don't have a book: 30 seconds with Google and you don't have to wonder anymore)

[Bearware]

51. How sure are we there was only 1 asteroid that nailed the dinosaurs?

Shoemaker-Levy ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Comet_Shoemaker-Levy_9 )showed multiple impacts are probably pretty likely. There can be long delays between impacts by different pieces. It can be very difficult to find old impacts because many of them hit the ocean and some craters may have been totally recycled.

I always enjoy descriptions about how HUGE the eruptions at the Deccan Traps and the Siberian Traps were. If HUGE is the right word for the "traps" then what do you call an event that puts magma in orbit instead of just a few miles in the air? Both of the traps could easily be minor side effects of large impacts. I wonder how carefully they have looked for multiple iridium layers - particularly below the traps.

[bhikkhu]

64. The strata have been pretty well studied

Not that I'm an authority, but if you read some books on the extinction events and the geology of the time, it seems that there is one iridium layer. It is probably better dated and studied than any other feature in the geology of the time, as it appears everywhere, including ocean sediments, and is one of the tools used worldwide in examining geologic strata. I try to keep up a habit when I "wonder" about something, of going out to the library and finding some books to read.

[Psephos]

27. There is no credible geotectonic model for an antipodal linkage.

What caused the Deccan eruptions?

:) It's like Fermat's Last Theorem. The clues are all there; someone will figure it out one of these days.

[eppur_se_muova]

32. That's been proposed, but I've never heard any followup. nt

[tclambert]

53. Dunno, the Earth is pretty big.

Maybe some resonance phenomenon? Shock waves traveling around the planet reinforcing at just the right spot? More likely the waves would weaken to insignificance in that distance.

Hold on, though, Chicxulub and the Deccan Traps are both north of the equator. That's not antipodal. You tryna trick me?

[HereSince1628]

11. Well, that's how we see it, truth is it was The Saurian Rapture

And Messiahsaurus called all the GOOD dinos to their celestial home, leaving the terrestrial remainder to live out the flaming and darkness of the Cretaceous endtime!

[teknomanzer]

17. Lo... It was a great tribulation...

The angelsauruses did blow upon the final trumpet and the last seal was broken from the book of the holy triceratops. All who were decieved by the false brontosaurus howled and gnashed their teeth. The skies darkened and the moon bacame as sackcloth. And behold there came a plague of mammals, diseased little hairy beasts with needlesharp teeth that did feast upon the flesh of the wickedsauruses.

[HereSince1628]

18. My understanding is that was actually an Archeoangelasaurus with resonant chambers

reaching over the head, much like a winged Paralaughosaurhahaus.

[No Elephants]

69. I'm not sure what you said, but I'm pretty sure it must be dirty. Or blasphemous. Or both.

Either way, you're going to Hell, and probably in a handbasket!

And your little dog, too!

[apnu]

34. LOL, damn! you two crack me up! Well played. (nt)

[dave29]

12. Asteroid confesses and tells all on Barbara Walters special next week

His life had been crumbling for some time, felt like he was in a void, and he could not take the pressure.

:hide:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

14. Will the asteroid cry? nt

[DainBramaged]

13. Barenaked Ladies The Big Bang Theory Theme Song lyrics"

Our whole universe was in a hot dense state,
Then nearly fourteen billion years ago expansion started. Wait...
The Earth began to cool,
The autotrophs began to drool,
Neanderthals developed tools,
We built a wall (we built the pyramids),
Math, science, history, unraveling the mysteries,
That all started with the big bang!

"Since the dawn of man" is really not that long,
As every galaxy was formed in less time than it takes to sing this song.
A fraction of a second and the elements were made.
The bipeds stood up straight,
The dinosaurs all met their fate,
They tried to leap but they were late
And they all died (they froze their asses off)
The oceans and pangea
See ya wouldn't wanna be ya
Set in motion by the same big bang!

It all started with the big BANG!

It's expanding ever outward but one day
It will cause the stars to go the other way,
Collapsing ever inward, we won't be here, it wont be hurt
Our best and brightest figure that it'll make an even bigger bang!

Australopithecus would really have been sick of us
Debating out while here they're catching deer (we're catching viruses)
Religion or astronomy, Encarta, Deuteronomy
It all started with the big bang!

Music and mythology, Einstein and astrology
It all started with the big bang!
It all started with the big BANG!

[Blue State Bandit]

35. What a bunch of geeks, these Bare Naked Ladies...

They did a song for the biology exhibit at the Franklin Institute called "The Blood Mobile" that explains the circulatory system. OK the fact that i know that...

[Larkspur]

15. But the dinosaurs are not extinct! Birds are their direct descendents

and aligators and crocodiles are older than dinosaurs and they have survived to this day.

And it's theoretically possible for genetic scientists to create Jurassic Park by changing birds in their embryo stage to dinos. Birds still retain the gene that can grow dino tails.

I'm not convinced that the asteroid was the main reason why dinosaurs went extinct when animals that existed at that time or before the dinosaurs are still with us today. I think that some dinosaur species were already heading towards extinction long before the asteroid hit the Earth. There have been no fossils of dinosaurs found in the geologic layer that the represents the asteroid impact 65 million years ago.

[jimmil]

19. Where are the fossils?

If most of life went extinct then why does the KT layer not contain zillions of fossils? That bugs me about the mass extinction theory.

[apnu]

39. Because the probablity of a lifeform's remains becoming a fossil is a really rare occurence.

The steps are like this.

1) Die
2) Get buried really fast (say at the bottom of a pond)
3) Minerals in your remains decompose and calcify, becoming rock.
4) Lie undisturbed by geological events (earth quakes, floods washing away dirt and rock and so on) for thousands of years while #3 happens.
5) Be dug up by a very good guessing and lucky scientist.

It is very rare occurrence that dinosaurs remains would become fossils. Plus this event didn't kill the dinosaurs in one flash, at least not the once in the impact and radiation zone. The rest probably died off over several years after the event as the catastrophic environmental change threw the whole world's ecosystem out of whack. As the dinos died, probably the carnivores were feasting really good on dead herbivores until that food source ran out. So, it is possible, that many of the remains were disturbed, ruining step #2 above. So the odds of fossilization are probably lower when the event occurred.

Take away a species food source and things get messy fast. Look what happens when there's a big earth quake or flood and people lose their food and water sources.

Plus with the KT boundary they know this. They don't find dinosaurs above the line, but they do find fossils below the line. Hence its importance.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

41. Wait, you have a problem with the mass extinction theory?

:rofl:

[Enthusiast]

46. Fossilization only occurs

under a narrow set of circumstances. Extinction would not increase the number of fossils appreciably.

[Brother Buzz]

28. Dinosaurs visit my area but black helicopters are used to relocate the pesky Brachiosaurus

They become a real nuisance in late fall when they discover and devour the budding illicit marijuana plots in the hills, then wander down and rampage lethargically through the local farmers markets. They've grown extremely fond of the baked goods. They favor the sticky buns and raisin bread in particular. After consuming all the pot and baked goods they fall over in the streets and slumber. That's when men wearing dark glasses fly in with their helicopter and relocate them far back in the hills only to have the event repeat itself the following year.

The pot farmers want the pesky Brachiosaurus removed from the endangered species list. The baker is spearheading the movement.

I did not take this photo but I witnessed the event. The photograph is not photoshopped.

[skyounkin]

48. Ohhhhh JESUS!

That is one of the funniest things I have seen in a bit!

[No Elephants]

73. Sticky buns and raisin bread? Sounds good to me. ( Maybe dinosaurs are not extinct, after all.)

[apnu]

37. Extinct and Extinction are different in this context.

They are talking about a mass extinction, or another way to say it is a mass die off of life. Basically, they are saying this asteroid impact caused a mass extinction of all life on the planet across the board. At no time are they saying all life on the planet died, just a large part of it.

So yes many species survived. Some evolved and some did not (sharks, crocs and gators). Also they are saying the mass extinction of the dominate life form allowed for the rise of mammals that brings us here to today.

When they say a species is "extinct" they mean one type of lifeforms is now gone. Like the dodo bird. That is an extinct species.

So there are two different definitions. The Field Museum in Chicago has an amazing exhibit called "Evolving Planet" that walks you through each era of Earth and points out each mass extinction that's occurred. Believe it or not, this last one they are talking about is not the worst mass extinction life on Earth has faced. There was another, before the dinosaurs, that killed off 90% of all life on the planet!

Hopes this helps.

[jmowreader]

65. What are you talking about, alligators and crocodiles?

Alligators and crocodiles ARE dinosaurs.

[No Elephants]

71. Methinks a bird with a dinosaur's tail is going to have a lot of trouble flying.

Either that, or the dino tail gene better also grow one damned big pair of wings, too.

[MidwestTransplant]

21. Lets do the math....Sarah Palin thinks man walked with Dinosaurs, an asteroid killed DInosaurs....

Hence we are lucky man didn't become extinct too.

[apnu]

40. But unlucky because we have Palin. So its a win for the Dinos. :P (nt)

[No Elephants]

72. Don't be silly. No asteroid hit Earth while man existed, or the Bible would mention it.

If anything hit the Earth, it was during the first couple of days, before the day God made Adam and Eve, who have also come to be known as "not Adam and Steve."

Duh!

[Turbineguy]

24. Now if we can figure out

when and where the next one hits, we can organize a GOP convention.

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

29. That is brilliant!! nt

[Mithreal]

44. +1 Don't forget the rapture-ready.

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_EUanEvq4iVc/SlfywOWZ8jI/AAAAAAAAA04/Ba-l6sEDeaw/s400/rapture+hatch.gif

[No Elephants]

74. Better: Figure out where the GOP is organizing its own convention, then drop an asteroid there.

Much easier.

[BadgerKid]

26. The gravity anomaly map is suggestive

of a crater.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater

[bikebloke]

30. Oh yeah?

Then how come nobody took a picture.

:evilgrin:

[Guy Whitey Corngood]

36. Well this might have been taken before this alleged event.

[apnu]

42. Damn! I had scrubbed that from my memory! Thanks for bringing it back.

"Not the Momma! Not the Momma! Not the Momma!"

[redwitch]

50. I LOVED that show!

Just hilarious dialogue and plot. I wish they would bring it back.

[Edweird]

31. One person's 'plausible' is another person's 'crock of shit'.

[apnu]

33. Damn the comments are entertaining. Yahoo is a wasteland of the ill-informed.

There is a ton of religious nutters attempting to "debate" science with out an understanding of what science is, what the scientific process is, and what a debate is, are pretty funny were they not sickening. for one to have a debate, two people need to be involved. To debate science, at least one of the debaters needs to be a scientist. I don't see any after three pages of comments. I quit reading after three pages, I just couldn't take the black hole of stupidity being generated there.

[and-justice-for-all]

47. The asteroid was the beginning of the end...

it triggered other events that also contributed to their demise.

[JCMach1]

52. Hold your horses, there may have been TWO impacts

Plus the location of the second impact would have boosted the volcanism already going on.


http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2009/10/091016-asteroid-impact-india-dinosaurs.html

...A six-mile-wide (ten-kilometer-wide) asteroid is thought to have carved out the Chicxulub crater off Mexico's Yucatán Peninsula, triggering worldwide climate changes that led to the mass extinction.

But the controversial new theory says the dinosaurs were actually finished off by another 25-mile-wide (40-kilometer-wide) asteroid. That space rock slammed into the planet off the western coast of India about 300,000 years after Chicxulub, experts say.

"The dinosaurs were really unlucky," said study co-author Sankar Chatterjee, a paleontologist at Texas Tech University in Lubbock.

Chatterjee thinks this second asteroid impact created a 300-mile-wide (500-kilometer-wide) depression on the Indian Ocean seafloor, which his team began exploring in 1996.

His team has dubbed this depression the Shiva crater, after the Hindu god of destruction and renewal.

"If we are correct," Chatterjee said, "this is the largest crater known on Earth."

Dinosaur-Killer Asteroid Boosted Volcanoes?

The Shiva asteroid impact was powerful enough to vaporize Earth's crust where it struck, allowing the much hotter mantle to well up and create the crater's tall, jagged rim, Chatterjee estimates.

What's more, his team thinks the impact caused a piece of the Indian subcontinent to break off and drift toward Africa, creating what are now the Seychelles islands (see map).

The Shiva impact may also have enhanced volcanic eruptions that were already occurring in what is now western India, Chatterjee added. ...

[Enthusiast]

59. Thanks, JCMach1.

Fascinating stuff.

[pinniped]

55. If this asteroid was real and dino fossils were planted by satan to test....

people's beliefs, how could a 'real' asteroid wipe out dinos that didn't exist?

[Ter]

56. It's only official if I see a video

:)

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

58. I'm sticking with the Chuck Norris hypothesis.

[No Elephants]

75. Which is that? That the Creators made the Earth, then the Total Gym?

Every time I hear him refer to the "Creators" of the Total Gym, I don't know whether to laugh or barf.

[Alias Dictus Tyrant]

77. And on the 7th Day, He partook of beer and pizza.

[KansDem]

60. It wasn't asteroids, it was this...

[Lagomorph]

61. Have they investigated....

dinosaur financial activities and environmental policies? I'm not ready to sign off on the asteroid thing yet.

[warm regards]

67. Well, I'm glad it got them all.

Can you imagine a world with PETA and dinosaurs?

[Lagomorph]

79. I dunno...

Wouldn't it be fun to call Animal Control for a T-Rex in your back yard?

[No Elephants]

76. The real problem was, the bail out had not been invented yet. So, even though the dinos were

too big to fail, they did anyway.

[ChairmanAgnostic]

78. can we aim one at the RNC and kill off those dinos?

[mvd]

80. Seriously, though

I think this is an interesting little article.