Assignment 12: “What Really Killed the Dinosaurs”

1. What is the conventional explanation of the extinction of the dinosaurs?

2. What happened to climate 66 m.y. ago?

3. What animals disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous?

4. What did the iridium suggest? Where is iridium normally found?

5. What other evidence of the impact was found in addition to the iridium?

6. What was also happening in the latest Cretaceous before the impact?

7. How might the Deccan volcanoes change climate and affect life?

8. What is a third change in the earth occurring in the latest Cretaceous besides the impact
   and volcanism?

9. How might the giant marine regression affect life in the oceans?

10. Even if there were no asteroid impact, how might life have been affected?

Assignment 12: “What Really Killed the Dinosaurs” Answer

1. What is the conventional explanation of the extinction of the dinosaurs?
   Answer: Asteroid impact on Earth
2. What happened to climate 66 m.y. ago?
   Answer: The climate became cold, specifically cooled by 7 degrees Celsius.
3. What animals disappeared at the end of the Cretaceous?
   Answer: Dinosaurs