Dinosaur Extinction Theories
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What killed the dinosaurs? Was their extinction caused by a sudden catastrophic event or was it a gradual process? Many theories have been placed before us, but the truth is that scientists still don't know what really caused the demise of the dinosaurs.
Some of the most popular extinction theories of the dinosaurs include the most favorable one, which is the theory originally proposed by Luis Alvarez during the 1980's. His theory suggested that a large meteor that crashed off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula in Central America.
Other theories include climate changes caused by slowly drifting continents. This may have altered sea currents and wind patterns setting off earthquakes and triggering the eruption of volcanoes, which may have influenced global climate.
There are over 50 theories or variants of theories that have been considered. Many of these are frivolous such as aliens from outer space hunted the dinosaurs to extinction or untestable theories such as disease that spread through dinosaur populations.
We will discuss the three important and testable hypotheses which are the impact, volcanism and marine regression theories.