What do scientists believe is the reason why dinosaurs became extinct?

Evidence suggests an asteroid impact was the main culprit. Volcanic eruptions that caused large-scale climate change may also have been involved, together with more gradual changes to Earth’s climate that happened over millions of years.

What catastrophic event is thought to have indirectly caused the extinction of the dinosaurs *?

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs triggered a natural disaster that scientists hadn’t realized, according to new clues from the ocean floor. Scientists have long known that an asteroid slammed in Earth and created the Chicxulub Crater, which contributed to the dinosaurs’ extinction 66 million years ago.

What destroyed the dinosaurs?

The asteroid impact led to the extinction of 75\% of life, including all non-avian dinosaurs. The crater left by the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs is located in the Yucatán Peninsula. It is called Chicxulub after a nearby town.

How do scientists identify a mass extinction event in the fossil record?

Mass extinctions were first identified by the obvious traces they left in the fossil record. Such dramatic changes in adjacent rock layers make it clear that mass extinctions were geologically rapid and suggest that they were caused by catastrophic events (e.g., a period of intense volcanic activity).

What happened to the dinosaurs when the meteor hit Earth?

The date of the impact coincides precisely with the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary (commonly known as the “K–Pg boundary”), slightly more than 66 million years ago, and a widely accepted theory is that worldwide climate disruption from the event was the cause of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, a mass …

What happened to the dinosaurs when they died?

After the dinosaurs’ extinction, flowering plants dominated Earth, continuing a process that had started in the Cretaceous, and continue to do so today. ‘All of the non-bird dinosaurs died out, but dinosaurs survived as birds. Some types of bird did go extinct, but the lineages that led to modern birds survived.

Where did the meteor that killed the dinosaurs hit?

Yucatán Peninsula
Sixty-six million years ago, a mountain-size asteroid slammed into Earth just off the coast of Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula, dooming the dinosaurs and leading to their extinction.