New theory claims insects killed off dinosaurs

[HURAKAN]

7/01/2008 8:22:00 AM.

A new theory claims it wasn't an ice age or a massive meteor, but tiny pests that brought down the mighty dinosaurs.

Scientists are throwing around the idea that diseases spread by ancient mosquitoes, mites and ticks finished off the extinct reptiles.

According to the most widely accepted explanation, the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid or comet that smashed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico 65 million years ago.

George Poinar from Oregon State University in the US points out that they didn't vanish immediately, which would be expected from an impact scenario.

But he says emerging new diseases spread by biting insects, and competition with insects for plant resources is perfectly compatible with a lengthy process of extinction.

http://livenews.com.au/Articles/2008/01 ... _dinosaurs
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Maybe the aliens had the dinosaurs for dinner. Still, I think there is enough evidence to put an asteroid as the dinosaurs' killer. Especially the K-T Boundary.

[brunota2003]

I do not believe it was the complete work of an impact or insects, but instead, the result of several different things combining. What do a lot of disease carrying insects thrive off of? Dead animals...

So, you have a meteor impact, right? It kills everything within a few hundred miles of the impact zone, and slowly (via the sun being blocked out from ash and debris, thus dropping global temperatures and killing off plants) starve others out. Then, there becomes an excess amount of insects, from all the extra dead carcusses to breed in, which finish off what few are left from the impact and starvation.

The impact and starvation is going to weaken them, so then with their immune systems already weakend, any disease would easily wipe out those who were still around. It would not affect ocean animals as much, because obviously, insects do not live underwater. Then after the remains of all the dead rot away, the insects die off and new life is finally able to emerge, along with warmer global temperatures...more advanced and with better immune systems than their predecessors.

Why are they trying to blame it soley on ONE cause? Scientists are screaming volcanic eruptions, or insects, or impacts as the sole cause...hasnt history taught us there is never a "sole" cause, but instead, a chain of events that ultimately leads to a species', or in this case multiple species', downfalls? Do not get me wrong, I am sure there are some out there who believe the chain of events stuff...but I hardly ever hear of them.

EDIT: Upon rereading my post...it has got me thinking. Wonder if I finally put 2 and 2 together, and figured something out? No one has really ever been able to figure the age old question out, and I doubt we ever will know for sure...but perhaps my thinking is closer to what really happend? I dunno, I was just free typing, typing how I felt about it. I'll have to research it tomorrow more and perhaps start a paper on what I think it is...Oh, and that up there would also explain why it took a long time for them to die off.

[Squarethecircle]

EDIT: Upon rereading my post...it has got me thinking. Wonder if I finally put 2 and 2 together, and figured something out? No one has really ever been able to figure the age old question out, and I doubt we ever will know for sure...but perhaps my thinking is closer to what really happend? I dunno, I was just free typing, typing how I felt about it. I'll have to research it tomorrow more and perhaps start a paper on what I think it is...Oh, and that up there would also explain why it took a long time for them to die off.

There had been cataclysmic occurrences prior to the extinction, so one might wonder if it was the somewhat (but not too) unusual product of a minor global disaster and a major global disaster at the same time.

[HURAKAN]

There is evidence of a massive volcanic eruption occurring in eastern India around the time of the impact and final demise of the dinosaurs.

[Squarethecircle]

:uarrow: There is evidence of a massive volcanic eruption occurring in eastern India around the time of the impact and final demise of the dinosaurs.

Figures, doesn't it?

[brunota2003]

So if both the eruption and impact occured, it'd block a lot of sunlight, thus causing cooler temperatures...allowing for the diseases from insects to easily kill (little food = weaker animals and immue systems). So does my thinking float, or is it full of holes?

[Ptarmigan]

I do not believe it was the complete work of an impact or insects, but instead, the result of several different things combining. What do a lot of disease carrying insects thrive off of? Dead animals...

So, you have a meteor impact, right? It kills everything within a few hundred miles of the impact zone, and slowly (via the sun being blocked out from ash and debris, thus dropping global temperatures and killing off plants) starve others out. Then, there becomes an excess amount of insects, from all the extra dead carcusses to breed in, which finish off what few are left from the impact and starvation.

The impact and starvation is going to weaken them, so then with their immune systems already weakend, any disease would easily wipe out those who were still around. It would not affect ocean animals as much, because obviously, insects do not live underwater. Then after the remains of all the dead rot away, the insects die off and new life is finally able to emerge, along with warmer global temperatures...more advanced and with better immune systems than their predecessors.

Why are they trying to blame it soley on ONE cause? Scientists are screaming volcanic eruptions, or insects, or impacts as the sole cause...hasnt history taught us there is never a "sole" cause, but instead, a chain of events that ultimately leads to a species', or in this case multiple species', downfalls? Do not get me wrong, I am sure there are some out there who believe the chain of events stuff...but I hardly ever hear of them.

EDIT: Upon rereading my post...it has got me thinking. Wonder if I finally put 2 and 2 together, and figured something out? No one has really ever been able to figure the age old question out, and I doubt we ever will know for sure...but perhaps my thinking is closer to what really happend? I dunno, I was just free typing, typing how I felt about it. I'll have to research it tomorrow more and perhaps start a paper on what I think it is...Oh, and that up there would also explain why it took a long time for them to die off.

I think the dinosaur extinction was a combination of meteor, volcano, mosquitos, and disesase. I wonder if frozen methane played a role in this? I know it played some role in the Cambrian extinction. Than again dinosaurs are not really extinct. They are called birds.