chisa96 said:
the basically accepted theory of the distruction of dinosaurs was the meteor that impacted the earth... when most people seem to think about the last apocalypse, they imagine the firey impact and the suffocation/poisoning of all remaining life on the planet...
archeologists can actually pinpoint the layer of rock when this occured... when the meteor hit (around the gulf of mexico) it sent fragments shooting for thousands of miles into the americas, well past the range of incineration... archeologists can uncover that layer of rock by detecting the extraterriestial fragments and pinpoint the timeframe they are looking at...
there are no dinosaur fragments in that layer though... nowhere in the world have any form of remains ever been uncovered at that layer... theoretically, the dinosaurs not taken down by the initial impact would have died off within months as the plant life was choked out... so directly after the impact, directly at this layer in the earth, there should be millions of fossils supporting that... there are none... meaning the dinosaurs were already dead when meteor hit...
This is not necessarily true.
For one thing Fossils do not appear everywhere or just anywhere one chooses to dig. Fossils are created by many complex chemical reactions , pressure and time.
This is why certain areas are rich with fossils dating back millions of years before this meteor impact. while other areas have fossils dating from the time after the same impact.
For example where I live which is hundreds of miles from the coast the area is rich with Sea shell fossils. One does not even have to dig they are lying around on the bank of every creek and stream. I have no idea what era or period they are from but they are obviously ancient from a time where the mid west was under the sea or on it's shore. On the other hand no one I know of has ever dug up a Dinosaur fossil in this area.
Now we do know that a massive meteor impact hit the Yucatan area which likely triggered the extinction of the Dinosaurs. And as you pointed out the layer of dirt from this impact can be found throughout the western hemisphere. However fossils are NOT found everywhere and lack of fossils i te layer do not disprove the theory since most fossils date from way before that impact and none from after it.
Do not forget we use fossil fuels which are called such for a reason. Not all ancient organic lifeforms turned to fossils. some eventually became oil some coal etc. Most probably just died and decayed without ever leaving a bone to be fossilized. This is one reason why digging for fossils can be so fascinating it is always possible to find one we have never seen before because most will probably never be identified simply because they left no remains to be dug up.
Also the theory that the impact rendered them extinct is valid \but also not as firm as you think many sub theories exist. For example the impact may not only have set off an impact ( nuclear ) winter but also may have triggered other changes such as a polar shift or a shifting of the crust or simply triggered much more violent geological reactions such as earthquakes and volcanoes which also may have contributed to the mass extinction.
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Mar 08, 2009 @ 05:27:06
