'There is a lot of discussion over the actual kill mechanism and how long that period lasted. All living things would have been affected in some way, both on land and in the ocean. The reduction in plant life had a huge impact on herbivores' ability to survive, which in turn meant that carnivores would also have suffered from having less food available.īreeding seasons would have been shorter and conditions harsher. Like dominos, this trailed up the food chain, causing the ecosystem to collapse. It didn't completely block out the Sun, but it reduced the amount of light that reached the Earth's surface. 'It sent soot travelling all around the world.
A huge blast wave and heatwave went out and it threw vast amounts of material up into the atmosphere. It made a huge crater, so in the immediate area there was total devastation.
Paul explains, 'The asteroid hit at high velocity and effectively vaporised. So how was it all caused by a rock hurtling into the coast of Central America? 'Recent redating has refined it, and the date of the dinosaur extinction is 66.0 million years ago.' What caused global mass extinctions?Īround 75% of Earth's animals, including dinosaurs, suddenly died out at the same point in time. There is also evidence of substantial fires from that point in history.įor a long time it was thought that the non-bird dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago.īut Paul explains, 'The dating of those layers of clay around the world is very accurate - it's estimated to within a couple of thousands of years. The dinosaur-killing crash threw huge amounts of debris into the air and caused massive tidal waves to wash over parts of the American continents.
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