Dinosaur Killers

by Popoff, Alexander

  Sir George H. Darwin, son of Charles Darwin, developed a theory of origins of the Sun-Earth-Moon system. His specialty was the study of tides. Darwin suggested that the Moon has been formed from matter pulled off Earth by solar tides. The Pacific Basin was later postulated to be the scar that remained after this “pinching off” of part of Earth’s body to form the Moon.

  95. Minerals loss.

  Plants lost minerals, which were essential to the growth of the dinosaurs and they perished.

  96. Arctic Spillover.

  The Arctic Ocean Spillover Theory was published in the article “Terminal Cretaceous Extinction Scenario for a Catastrophe” by Stefan Gartner and James P. McGuirk in Science in 1979.

  They suggested that the climatic disturbance at the end of Cretaceous—severe prolonged drought for about a decade or more accompanied by general cooling and greater seasonality—was a consequence of the Atlantic spillover: the entire world ocean was covered by a layer of cold water that originated from the Arctic Ocean.

  The drastically reduced salinity at the surface and the oxygen depletion caused rapid extinction of the marine biota. The authors concluded that the marine extinction and land extinction probably were not simultaneous.

  The climatic reorganization led to a change in the composition of the flora over large part of Earth.

  The Mesozoic world changed very rapidly and most of the species, including the dinosaurs, could not adapt to the new environment.

  97. Separation of Antarctica and South America.

  Antarctica and South America separated, causing cool waters to enter the world’s oceans from the south, changing greatly the world climate.

  98. Wandering black hole.

  Astronomers using the Chandra X-Ray Observatory have found evidence that a massive black hole have been ejected from the CID-42 galaxy, moving out at a speed of several million kilometers per hour. It weighs millions of times the mass of the Sun. This phenomenon is called recoiled black hole.

  According to scientists, there are thousands of wandering black holes in the Galaxy.

  According to the Gregory-Laflamme instability theory, certain types of black holes break up into smaller black holes when disturbed, just like a thin stream of water breaks into little droplets when touched with a finger.

  If a minor black hole enters the Solar System or a massive one passes nearby, the orbits of the planets would be disturbed, pushing our planet to the Sun or to the outer space, changing their tilts, causing massive bolide impacts, space dust entering Earth’s atmosphere and disturbing photosynthesis, multiple powerful volcano eruptions, etc. The orbit and tilt change of Earth can cause dramatic climatic changes.

  Mass extinction is inevitable.

  99. God corrected His mistake.

  According to theological arguments of the 18th century, creating dinosaurs was God’s mistake in Creation and He deleted them in a great Flood.

  Now, we know that God (or some master of the world) regularly annihilates species. Actually, almost all species that ever lived on Earth were deleted and replaced by higher species. Humans also will be replaced with more sophisticated intelligent creatures. Mankind, now you know your future.

  100. Predators.

  The dinosaurs were hunted down by still-unidentified predators. Only the avian dinosaurs survived because they could fly off from their enemies.

  101. Earth’s heat changed.

  There are three main sources of heat deep in Earth:

  1. Heat from when the planet formed and accreted, which has not yet been lost;

  2. Frictional heating, caused by denser core material sinking to the center of the planet;

  3. Heat from the decay of radioactive elements.

  The Earth’s core is divided into two separate regions: the liquid outer core and the solid inner core, with the transition between the two lying at a depth of 5,000 kilometers (3,000 miles).

  Due to the movements of the core, the amount of heat sometimes can rise or decrease, changing climate that in some cases is rapid (geologically speaking) and significant and can cause mass extinctions.

  102. Malfunction of pituitary gland.

  This suggestion is opposite to the hypothesis of hyperactive pituitary gland.

  Malfunction of pituitary gland led to excess growth of unnecessary and debilitating horns, spines, and frills, making the dinosaurs very weak and infirm. This impaired their ability to feed, move, reproduce, and compete with other species.

  103. Sunspots and solar flares.

  The Sun’s activity doesn’t stay exactly the same. It tends to vary with time.

  There are eleven-year sunspot cycles and longer cycles, lasting hundreds or even thousands of years.

  If there are few if any sunspots, the weather is colder. These periods are known as Little Ice Ages and are marked by extremely cold, snowy winters, and cool summers. During such periods many glaciers stop their retreat and begin advancing again.

  At the end of the Cretaceous the solar activity became enormous. The sunspots and the solar flares grew in number and size. The increased solar radiation and much warmer climate killed off the dinosaurs.

  104. Underwater volcanoes.

  Disturbances in the Earth’s core triggered a series of events: continental drift, huge underwater mountains were created, magnetic reversals happened, land mountains were formed, sea levels changed, shallow waters disappeared, huge marine volcanoes and basalt lava floods, etc.

  Underwater volcanoes heated and poisoned the oceans, killing off almost all animals and plants. Most of the species in the rivers and the seas survived. The marine volcanoes also influenced the temperatures all around the globe, and the weather became much hotter.

  The marine and land surface of Earth and the climate changed very fast, and most of the species could not adapt fast enough to the new environment and went extinct.

  105. New decomposers.

  Certain species of fungi (the main decomposer) and bacteria are the engines of the process of decomposition. If there is no decomposition, the surface of the planet would be buried by dead leaves, wood, and animal corpses.

  In the Early Devonian the plant remains were decomposed mainly by fungi. At the end of the Cretaceous period there appeared new decomposing bacteria species. By this time there were only a few very primitive decomposing bacteria. The corpses of the dead creatures could last for very long time not decaying, providing food for the scavengers and predators. When the new decomposing bacteria appeared, there was a food shortage because the dead animals just rotted very quickly; the plant mass was reduced, too. Not all species could adapt to the new bacteria they got with the food. The food shortage and the new microorganisms in the food caused many species to go extinct.

  106. Paleoweltschmerz.

  Weltschmerz (from the German, meaning world-pain and world-weariness)is a term coined by the German author Jean Paul Richter and denotes the kind of feeling experienced by someone who understands that physical reality can never satisfy the demands of the mind. Weltschmerz can cause depression, resignation, and escapism, and can become a serious mental problem.

  The dinosaurs died off from Paleoweltschmerz. They committed suicide, just like some dolphins, lemmings, whales, and other animals, because they got fed up with their primitive Mesozoic dinosaurian existence. They were also very overcrowded and stressed. 90 percent of the continents were under water.

  107. Dinosaurs now live inside Earth.

  The Hollow Earth hypothesis proposes that the planet Earth is either entirely hollow or contains a substantial interior space.

  In the Late Cretaceous there were still openings leading into the hollow interior of Earth, and most species moved there because of the more favorable environment and now they are living there in peace and harmony.

  108. Sick times.

  According to the paleontologist Roy Moodie, arthritis, caries, fractures, and infections reached a maximum in late Cretaceous.

  He assumed that dinosaurs died off becau
se a great number of accidents and injuries happened all the time. In his book Paleopathology, published in 1923, he analyzed fractures, infections, arthritis, and other pathologies found in Mesozoic fossils, and created a graph of diseases over time. The end of Cretaceous was a very rough time for reptiles and dinosaurs. Moodie wrote, “It seems quite probable that many of the diseases which afflicted the dinosaurs and their associates became extinct with them.”

  109. AIDS.

  According to Fred Hoyle and Wickramasinghe, many outbreaks of illnesses on Earth are of extraterrestrial origins, including the 1918 flu pandemic, certain outbreaks of polio, the mad cow disease, etc. For the 1918 flu pandemic they hypothesized that cometary dust brought the virus to Earth. Hoyle also hypothesized that AIDS came from outer space.

  The paleo version of AIDS, delivered from space or caused by increasing promiscuity, finished off the dinosaurs.

  110. Lack of ability to modify behavior.

  J. Fremlin suggested in his article “Dinosaur death: the unconscious factor,” published in New Scientist, that the dinosaurs went extinct because lack of consciousness and absence of the ability to modify behavior in the fast-changing time near the end of the Cretaceous.

  111. Excessive mutations.

  This theory is based on the mutation rate of species population and the size ofthe population.

  S. C. Tsakas and J. R. David published in their article “Population genetics and Cretaceous extinction” their theory that excessive mutation rate caused by high levels of cosmic rays and/or ultraviolet light during coincident frequent geomagnetic reversal led to small population size, diversification of the species, bigger body size, and top position in the food chain, but they were burdened by a high genetic load and vulnerability to environmental shock changes.

  Authors wrote, “With a higher mutation rate an acceleration in diversification-speciation occurs. The new species, therefore, arise not only with smaller species population but in addition with a heavy genetic load.”

  The frequent geomagnetic reversal period at the end of Cretaceous is remarkable after 40 million years of constant polarity. At that time dinosaurs, ammonites, and other species began a rapid diversification due to excessive mutations and ended with extinction. During geomagnetic reversals the species are more exposed to cosmic radiation and ultraviolet light for about 1000 to 10,000 years because the protecting shield of the ozone layer is almost nonexistent, leading to heavy genetic load and reduced fitness. After such periods species are much more vulnerable to extinction.

  The authors think that the high rates of diversification of the species due to excessive genetic mutations, including the dinosaurs, was the real cause for their extinction. The diversification among the surviving species was lower.

  When the asteroid hit the Earth, there were almost no dinosaurs left alive.

  112. Widespread forestation.

  In 1981, V. A. Krassilov published in Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecologyhis article “Changes of Mesozoic vegetation and the extinction of dinosaurs.”

  He suggested that dinosaur communities lived in extensive shrublands and fern marshes, and the eventual elimination of this plant formations and widespread forestation due to climate changes probably caused dinosaur extinction because they lost their habitats and their usual food.

  113. Calcium deficiency.

  Dinosaurs required large amounts of calcium because the eggshells are almost pure calcium carbonate, and the egg itself contains calcium used by the developing dinosaur. Calcium deficiency in eggs can result in problems such as thin, poorly formed eggs, misshapen, and sometimes shell-less eggs, and reduced egg production.

  Insufficient dietary calcium in young dinosaurs led to splayed legs, deformities, easily broken bones, and muscle weakness. These young often ended up dead.

  Volcanoes produced huge amounts of sulfur in the atmosphere that caused acid rain, which reacted with calcium in the environment, leading to less calcium in the food chain. The lack of calcium would have had a bad impact on egg production of the dinosaurs and they died off.

  114. Rickets.

  In 1928, according to a report in Science News-Letter, Harry T. Marshall, a pathologist at the University of Virginia, suggested that the dinosaurs died of rickets after volcanic dust clouds obscured the sun and cut off the supply of ultraviolet light.

  The primary cause of rickets is a vitamin D deficiency. Sunlight, especially ultraviolet light, lets skin cells convert vitamin D from an inactive to active state.

  Rickets is a softening of bones in infants due to deficiency or impaired metabolism of vitamin D, phosphorus, or calcium, potentially leading to fractures and deformity, bone tenderness, dental problems, muscle weakness, increased tendency for fractures (easily broken bones), skeletal, cranial, pelvic, and spinal deformity, soft skulls, etc.

  Within a few generations of malformed bones, vulnerable young, scarce food lacking vitamin D, and digestive disturbances could finish off the dinosaurs.

  115. Oxygen poisoning.

  Due to the warm, steady climate and elevated amounts of carbon dioxide, the Cretaceous plants produced large amounts of oxygen and increased the oxygen level.

  The rate of metabolism in the tissue of the dinosaurs became higher. Elevated amounts of oxygen resulted in oxygen poisoning.

  The higher levels of oxygen in the atmosphere was both a blessing and a curse; oxygen is energy-rich and can provide an energy for cellular function, but it can also be highly toxic. Living in an environment of increased levels of oxygen is a real challenge for the creatures because they have to capture and store the oxygen without suffering the hazardous side effects of this energy source.

  If this metabolic rate is very high, especially in large species, they may not be able to eat enough food to survive.

  AlbertSchatz, biochemist at the National Agricultural College, suggested that, “The dinosaurs may have well burnt themselves up, or out!”

  116. Wildfires.

  Wendy Wolbach et al. reported in 1985 the presence of graphitic carbon, primarily in the form of soot, a possible telltale record of wildfires, at several K-Pg boundary sites.

  The Cretaceous atmosphere was denser, with higher amounts of carbon dioxide than today, which the huge plant mass turned into excessive oxygen. The oxygen spike and the global wildfire inferno were inevitable.

  The oxygen levels reached about 24 to 28 percent, some researchers state even amounts of 35 percent, analyzing the gases in amber bubbles. Wildfires happen all the time, ignited by lightning and coal self-combustion.

  There is no need of an asteroid igniter. Wildfires occur naturally, and the intensity depends on the level of oxygen in the air atmosphere and the quantity of plant biomass and open coal deposits.

  The fires devastated a large part of the plants and the animals. The soot thrown up into the atmosphere blocked the sunlight, causing global cooling and a temporary shutdown of photosynthesis of land and marine plants.

  The food shortage, the changed climate, and the acidification of the oceans finished off most of the species, including the dinosaurs.

  Several surveys discovered a fern spore spike after the K-Pg boundary. Fern spore spike is an anomalous concentration of the spores by growing ferns, relative to the pollen shed by other types of plants that grew soon after the catastrophic wildfires. After huge wildfires the ferns are the first large plants to regrow on the devastated landscape. The other plants, like bushes and eventually trees, begin to grow many years later.

  117. Marine regression.

  In 1964, Leonard Ginsburg, professor of paleontology at the French Natural History Museum, published his first thesis on the extinction that a gradual drop in world sea levels (marine regression) led to disastrous climate changes, and most of the species could not adapt and gradually vanished.

  Ginsburg claimed that major geological divisions begin with spread of seas and oceans over large land areas, and cause the appearance of new flora and fauna, and end with the waters
shrinking again, inducing mass extinctions.

  Ginsburg suggested that the iridium in the boundary layer could originate by the pockets of evaporating water.

  118. Cosmic flood.

  Earth entered a region of tremendous interstellar clouds, containing a large percentage of water molecules, and smaller parts of metals, organic molecules, dust, etc. The result was a gargantuan flood, annihilating most of the species on our planet.

  Earth periodically passes through such watery cosmic clouds, which cause catastrophic floods.

  119. Mountain building.

  In 1915, William Diller Matthew in his book Dinosaurs wrote, “A geologic period is the record of one of these immense and long continued movements of alternate submergence and elevation of the continents. It begins, therefore, and ends with a time of emergence, and includes a long era of submergence. These epochs of elevation are accompanied by the development of cold climates at the poles, and elsewhere of arid conditions in the interior of the continents. The epochs of submergence are accompanied by a warm, humid climate, more or less uniform from the equator to the poles.”

  Matthew suggested that the dinosaurs “survived vast changes in geography and climate, and became extinct through a combination of causes not fully understood as yet; probably the great changes in physical conditions at the end of the Cretaceous period, and the development of mammals and birds, more intelligent, more active, and better adapted to the new conditions of life, were the most important factors in their extinction.”

  120. Stagnant oceans and violent volcanism.

  In the article “Violent volcanism, stagnant oceans and some inferences regarding petroleum, strata-bound ores and mass extinctions,” published in Geochimica et Cosmochimica Acta by M.L.Keith, presented the theory that at the end of Cretaceous the oceans changed from well-mixed aerated to stratified (in layers), which caused marine faunal extinction and climatic warming due to the greenhouse effect result of increased levels of volcanic carbon dioxide.