MASS EXTINCTION ; ... Sixty-five million years ago, an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. Not that the ruling reptiles made it easy—Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and company didn’t stand in one place, stoically waiting for the inevitable. Rather, the six-mile-wide chunk of extraterrestrial rock struck the Earth with such force that it sparked a global firestorm followed by a thick dust shroud that slowly choked whatever life persisted through the first onslaught. A reign of more than 160 million years ended in just a few days or weeks, leaving behind a charred world open to exploitation by our shrewd mammalian forebears.
That’s a nice fairy tale. But it’s not accurate. It’s more of the “based on a true story” version of what really happened as the curtain fell on the Cretaceous.
MASS EXTINCTION ; ...
ReplyDeleteSixty-five million years ago, an asteroid killed the dinosaurs. Not that the ruling reptiles made it easy—Tyrannosaurus, Triceratops, and company didn’t stand in one place, stoically waiting for the inevitable. Rather, the six-mile-wide chunk of extraterrestrial rock struck the Earth with such force that it sparked a global firestorm followed by a thick dust shroud that slowly choked whatever life persisted through the first onslaught. A reign of more than 160 million years ended in just a few days or weeks, leaving behind a charred world open to exploitation by our shrewd mammalian forebears.
That’s a nice fairy tale. But it’s not accurate. It’s more of the “based on a true story” version of what really happened as the curtain fell on the Cretaceous.