• Question: what killed all the dinosaurs especially the leoploradon?

    Asked by totallygnarly to Charlie, Eoin, Jemma, Julian, Steve on 17 Mar 2011.
    • Photo: Eoin Lettice

      Eoin Lettice answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi,
      As far as I know, the dinosaurs were wiped out in a realtively short period of time and it was caused by dramatic climate change. Scientists think that the climate changed after a very large meteorite (or a series of them) hit earth. The change in weather and climate that it caused may have been too much for the dinosaurs to survive.

      Eoin.

    • Photo: Charlie Ryan

      Charlie Ryan answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      hi totallygnarly again! I think the general view is that an meteorite hit the earth, making the earth not very good place to live on for many thousands of years. The evidence scientists have of the meteorite impact is a layer of dark material in earth crust that comes formed at the same time as the dinosaurs disappearance.
      I’ve never heard of a eoploradon – sounds pretty cool!

    • Photo: Stephen Moss

      Stephen Moss answered on 16 Mar 2011:

      Hi Totallygnarly

      The most likely reason the dinosaurs all died out, including the unfortunate leoploradon (which I’ve never heard of before), is that a massive rock or asteroid crashed into the earth, sending up a cloud of dust so thick that it completely encircled the earth plunging it into total darkness for several years. As a result, the plants all died, so the plant eaters died, and the meat-eaters too. There may be other explanations, but this would seem to be a particularly good one.

    • Photo: Julian Rayner

      Julian Rayner answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      Gnarly, how many questions can one person have?

      I don’t think we will every really know, but the collision theory sounds plausible and well supported by most of the data.

      I personally hope that it was malaria – there are malaria parasites that infect just about anything, including birds, snakes and lizards. It would be cool to think of T Rex being struck down by a single celled parasite chewing through its blood cells.

    • Photo: Jemma Ransom

      Jemma Ransom answered on 17 Mar 2011:

      I’m in no way an expert, but I think that theory is a meteor hit Earth and wiped them all out, however birds survived. You’d have to ask a paleontologist for a more detailed answer.

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