When the dinosaurs disappeared from the earth. Global Firestorm

There are many different theories of the creation of the world and its development. And they are similar only in one thing: dinosaurs really existed. And this can be confirmed by a number of evidence. However, until now, no one can say with certainty why the dinosaurs became extinct. There are only a number of hypotheses explaining the possible reasons for the extinction of an entire population of these creatures.

Dinosaurs are classified as terrestrial vertebrates that lived in the Mesozoic era until the very end of the Cretaceous period. Their ancestors are considered to be reptiles, which are similar in structure to modern lizards. The appearance of dinosaurs on Earth is considered the result of a mutation of reptiles due to climate change.

Based on this and other knowledge about dinosaurs, various hypotheses began to emerge as to why they disappeared.

asteroid impact

This hypothesis is based on the assumption that at the end of the Mesozoic era a huge asteroid fell to Earth. The dust that rose after the fall did not settle for a long time. The rays of the sun scattered in it, which led to cold weather and almost complete darkness. The lack of sunlight significantly slowed down or completely stopped processes important for the inhabitants of the planet (for example, photosynthesis).

Most plants and animals died out or were rebuilt to new living conditions. And dinosaurs were no exception. A complete restructuring of the entire marine and terrestrial range began. Clay layers found in all corners of the world, in which platinum elements, including iridium, significantly predominate, confirm this version. This substance is rarely found in the earth's crust, but it is an integral part of meteorites.

Glaciers

One of the reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs is considered to be the onset of the ice age. The cooling occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period, but many scientists tend to believe that this phenomenon was observed much later. Not a single form of life that existed at that time was ready for such sharp climatic changes.

There is no clear answer to the question of what influenced the movement of glaciers. And if we compare the chronology of this event with the biblical texts, we can assume that instead of glaciers there was a massive flood.

Volcanic activity

This version is rather the reason explaining the onset of the ice age and, as a result, the extinction of dinosaurs.

It is assumed that at the end of the Cretaceous period, most volcanoes on Earth began to show excessive activity. This led to shifts in the earth's crust. Volcanic dust and ash have affected the change in temperature. But such a process was supposed to take place not spontaneously, but gradually, so all the giant lizards could not die.

Natural selection

AT modern world no one is surprised by the statements that many species of plants and animals are on the verge of extinction. Everyone is well aware that this is mainly influenced by anthropogenic factors.

However, it can be assumed that the dinosaurs were killed not by climatic changes, but by a neighboring population. It is only in R. Kipling's "The Jungle Book" that animals say to each other: "You and I are of the same blood." In life, the strongest population survives - this is the essence of natural selection.

Epidemic

Based on the theory of evolution of Charles Darwin, bacteria and microbes appeared before all other forms of life on Earth. The processes of evolution did not bypass them, and these microorganisms mutated. Thanks to such statements, a new hypothesis was born about why the giant lizards died out.

Any living organism adapts to changing environmental conditions, but not all inhabitants of the Earth can live with different bacteria on the principles of mutualism (“mutually beneficial cohabitation”). Therefore, the version that the dinosaurs were killed by an epidemic has the right to life. It is possible that most of the epidemics that at one time destroyed a huge number of people millions of years ago destroyed the dinosaurs.

The proof of this theory can only be knowledge of certain properties of microorganisms. The fact is that bacteria survive under a variety of environmental conditions. In severe frosts, they do not die, but only fold into a cyst. This shell allows microbes to live for a huge number of years in the so-called sleep mode. As soon as the conditions again become suitable for the life of microorganisms, they “wake up” and begin to multiply.

Hunger

One of the most unfounded versions of the death of dinosaurs is the lack of food. There is a theory that the resources on the planet will someday not be enough for everyone, and this will lead to the end of the world. Such assumptions, though easy to prove by simple calculations, but they concern the future.

It can be assumed that the dinosaurs survived all the climate changes, but the plants that they ate did not survive. But this only explains the death of herbivorous mammals. Where, then, did the lizard predators go?

Change in the force of gravity of the Earth

One of the most recent versions says that giant lizards have disappeared due to an increase in the Earth's gravity. The theory is based on the fact that the planets gradually increase in size. This means that their mass and attractive force also increase. Such a circumstance could well have affected the mobility of dinosaurs, as well as other creatures.

To understand why this happens, we can recall an example of such a phenomenon as complete weightlessness in outer space on ships. That is, the lower the force of attraction, the easier it is to move. The weight of the dinosaurs was too great, and their body could really not be able to adapt to such changes. Every day it became harder and harder for them to move, which made it much more difficult to find food and their life processes in general.

Are dinosaurs still alive?

While some scientists are puzzling over the reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs, others put forward hypotheses that these creatures did not become extinct at all, and find confirmation of this!

Such hypotheses were initially based on the fact that some legends of different peoples are confirmed. And many legends spoke of magical creatures - dragons, which people began to destroy in ancient times. They found their salvation in caves and rocks located very far from human settlements. All descriptions of magical creatures are similar to those of dinosaurs.

At the moment, more and more information appears about chupacabra and other strange creatures that live in the mountains, forests and under water. And there is already a lot of evidence of their existence. For example, the Nessie monster that lives in Loch Ness.

A life form similar to the Loch Ness monster was seen in the Jökulsau-au-Dal River (Iceland) and in Lake Windervin (England). Eyewitnesses claim that the monster looks like prehistoric reptiles, it has a huge body and Long neck and there are fins. The first mention of this creature is in the records of the Roman legionnaires, who at that time fought with the Celts. It is possible that the monster is a direct descendant of dinosaurs.

In 1915, the German submarine I-28 blew up the English steamship Iberia. In the logbook, the sailors noted that the ship sank too quickly and exploded at a depth of 1,000 meters. The wreckage of the ship floated to the surface of the water. Among them, the crew saw a strange creature that looked like a crocodile with four flippers.

The length of the sea monster was about 20 meters. This fact drew the attention of cryptozoologists. After a thorough study of the issue, they concluded that, most likely, the monster is none other than the mosasaurus, which is considered extinct for a long time.

But the clearest evidence that not all dinosaurs died is the tuatara. It is often confused with the common lizard. However, scientists have proven that this is not a descendant of one of the dinosaur species, but a real three-eyed dinosaur.

Modern science is at a high level of development. However, at the same time, there are still many topics that remain a mystery to her. One of the most important is the extinction of the dinosaurs. Scientists are well aware that the ancient lizards died out at the final stage of the Cretaceous period due to the fall of a huge asteroid on our planet. This version is one of the main ones, but there is very little evidence in its favor. Until now, there are heated debates between experts regarding the causes of the death of dinosaurs, and more and more new versions appear.

Scientists are trying to understand why the ancient lizards, which dominated the Earth for millions of years, died out in a relatively short time. World science often tries to explain the death of lizards with the help of so-called "catastrophic" hypotheses. Lizards, and with them ammonites and marine reptiles, could die as a result of volcanic activity, falling ocean water levels, a supernova explosion in the vicinity solar system, meteorite impact.

The most popular version is that the lizards died out from the fall of an asteroid. Its author is Luis Alvarez, an American physicist who claimed that approximately 66 million years ago a gigantic meteorite fell on the planet. The crash site is the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. After the cataclysm, a lot of dust rose into the atmosphere, and dormant volcanoes became more active. All this led to an astroid winter and, as a result, to the extinction of ancient reptiles and some other animal species. This version has opponents who claim that the Chicxulub crater has a very small size, and that there are much larger craters on the planet from large celestial bodies, however, during the period of time when these objects collided with our planet, there were no significant changes in the fauna there. However, adherents of this theory argue that the death of the lizards was provoked by the fall of not one, but several asteroids at once, since the dinosaurs died out over hundreds of thousands of years, that is, rather slowly.

Another version is quite popular - the so-called hypothesis of active volcanism. Adherents of this theory in their conclusions rely on the Deccan traps (India) - a plateau covered with basalt eruptions, the thickness of which is about two kilometers. The age of the basalt is estimated at about 60-68 million years. According to supporters of this version, volcanic activity continued for a considerable time, as a result of which the earth's climate became much colder, and the ancient lizards simply froze.

However, their opponents argue that if the process of eruption and cooling was long, then the reptiles could well adapt to it and, therefore, survive.

This hypothesis suggests that the death of dinosaurs occurred as a result of changes in climatic conditions on the planet due to continental drift. The drift provoked temperature drops, the death of many plant species, the drying up of water bodies and, as a result, a change in the food base of reptiles.

In addition, there is a theory that temperature changes caused the eggs of lizards to appear exclusively males or exclusively females. Ultimately, this provoked the death of the species.

Another version suggests that due to the cold, the shell of the lizard eggs became thinner or thicker, therefore, the cubs either could not get out and died, or died from numerous infections or predators.

Opponents of this hypothesis are climatologists, whose studies indicate that there were no significant climatic changes 66 million years ago. The closest cooling began 58 million years ago.

Among scientists, the assumption is also popular that the cause of death of ancient lizards could be a change in the atmosphere. According to this theory, the cataclysms caused such large-scale atmospheric changes on the planet that the dinosaurs simply died from lack of air. According to scientists, the reasons for such changes may be different. Some researchers, again, talk about asteroids, others blame volcanoes.

According to experts, during the period of existence of ancient lizards on the planet, the oxygen content in the atmosphere was approximately 10-15 percent, and carbon dioxide was much less. As a result of changes in the composition of the air, plants also changed, due to which a new fauna began to develop.

However, opponents of this theory, after studying the composition of air in ancient sediments and rocks, stated that during the Cretaceous period no significant changes in air composition occurred.

The hypothesis about the appearance of flowering plants is related to changes in the food pyramid of ancient pangolins. It is generally accepted that during that period the vegetation on the planet was rapidly changing. Flowering plants completely new to dinosaurs began to appear. Reptiles were unable to adapt to the alkaloids present in plants, so they died from poisoning.

And the mass extinction of herbivorous dinosaurs led to the death of predators.

According to the hypothesis of competition with mammals, hulking gigantic pangolins could not compete with much smaller mobile warm-blooded mammals, which, among other things, also fed on pangolin eggs.

Modern science adheres to the theory of the great extinction, the essence of which is that the main factors in the death of ancient pangolins are climate changes caused by continental drift, as well as the appearance of flowering plants.

New plants at first gradually replaced horsetails and ferns. The developed root system of flowering plants significantly slowed down the flow of nutrients into the ocean, which led to the death of algae and, consequently, the extinction of sea lizards.

At the same time, land dinosaurs gradually adapted to new plant species. As a result of the drift of the continents, sea and air currents changed, a cold snap began, which led to the cessation of the emergence of new types of pangolins. Those species that existed up to this point lived for some time, and then died out. Belemnites and ammonites, as well as small algae, perished along with them. Survived crocodiles, turtles and snakes, birds, corals, as well as relatives of ammonites - nautiluses. Mammals, which gradually evolved, did not immediately establish their dominance on land.

It should be noted that domestic and foreign paleontologists hold different points of view. So, domestic experts argue that the ancient lizards disappeared gradually - as a result of the cooling of the climate and the appearance of flowering plants. The development of plants led to the appearance of insects that fed on small mammals. They, quite obviously, could not compete with dinosaurs, but at the same time - predators fed on the eggs of pangolins. Thus, the viability of dinosaurs was weakened, despite the fact that there was no direct competition between them and mammals.

Western paleontologists lean more toward catastrophic hypotheses. The basis of this kind of views was the Chicxulub crater. The main argument in this theory was a thin layer of clay, in which experts found a high content of iridium metal (probably of unearthly origin).

The weak point of catastrophic hypotheses is the fact that the extinction of dinosaurs lasted for millions of years, and it began much earlier than the fall of asteroids. It is possible that before the fall of asteroids, many types of dinosaurs suffered from some negative long-term processes, and the asteroid only accelerated their death.

However, why did the fall of the asteroid have such catastrophic consequences? How did the catastrophe affect the biosphere? And why death was so selective - only the ancient lizards died out, but turtles, snakes and crocodiles remained.

To find answers to all these questions, a marine scientific expedition began last spring: researchers are trying to drill the Chicxulub crater from a tower in Gulf of Mexico. Scientists hope that rock samples extracted from there will help them clarify the situation.

Japanese experts, at the same time, put forward another hypothesis, according to which the soot that rose into the atmosphere after the fall of the asteroid was the cause of the death of the pangolins. It should be noted that it is generally accepted that the asteroid impact filled the atmosphere with sulfuric acid aerosols that reflected sunlight, resulting in photosynthesis halted, darkness set in, acid rain began, and temperatures dropped. At the same time, this theory does not explain why mammals, birds and crocodiles survived.

All of this has led Japanese scientists to speculate that a soot release is a more realistic scenario.

The final calculations confirmed that the probable soot emissions were about 1500 teragrams. Moderate cooling and slowing of the process of photosynthesis in the ocean, which followed the release, led to the extinction of ammonites, but did not affect deep-sea organisms.

Geologists have found that a drop in temperature and drought triggered a destructive process: the drying of plants provoked a drop in soil moisture. Those plants that managed to survive were eaten by herbivorous lizards. The process of desertification began, which led to the death of herbivorous reptiles, and, consequently, the predators that fed on them. Freshwater crocodiles survived, since the basis of the food supply was plant detritus, which entered the water in sufficient quantities even during the critical years of the disaster.

Scientists say the asteroid impact was not as bad as people think. At the same time, the extinction of dinosaurs indicates that even such a short-term catastrophe can lead to irreversible changes in the biosphere - and this is a valuable lesson in the age of global warming ...

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Why dinosaurs became extinct

Dinosaurs, safely extinct about 65 million years ago, were creepy creatures - thick-skinned, armored, solid teeth and claws. For example, the tyrannosaurus rex, the largest land predator of all time, could easily bite a rhinoceros or an elephant in half with one elusive movement of its terrible jaws. And the weight of herbivorous lizards with columnar legs reached 30 and even 50 tons. And it is no coincidence that paleontologists, having unearthed the heavy bones of another antediluvian reptile, called it a seismosaurus, that is, a lizard that shakes the earth. The length of this monster, according to cautious estimates of scientists, was 48-50 meters.

For nearly two hundred million years, magnificent reptiles have been the sovereign masters of all three elements: nimble ichthyosaurs, reminiscent of modern dolphins, swam in the primitive seas, multi-ton diplodocuses walked on the ground, and toothy pterodactyls looked out for prey in the sky. (By the way, the wingspan of these flying monsters could sometimes reach 16 meters, which is quite comparable to the dimensions of a combat fighter today.)

Tyrannosaurus rex skull

And then, suddenly, giant lizards began to rapidly die out, they were replaced by nondescript, small and unremarkable creatures, leading a predominantly nocturnal lifestyle. Scientists knew about the sudden and catastrophic changes in the composition of the planetary biota at the end of the Cretaceous period already in the 18th century, and since then this mysterious phenomenon is often called the "Great Dying".

What happened? Usually textbooks paint such a simple picture. A large and prosperous group of reptiles (both predatory and herbivorous), which inhabited all the ecological niches of the planet, suddenly died suddenly - instantly and everywhere. And since these giants did not have serious competitors at that time (mammals huddled in the backyard of evolution and subsequently simply occupied an empty house), it is logical to look for some external reason. For example, a climatic cataclysm (a sharp cooling or, conversely, warming), a supernova explosion accompanied by deadly fluctuations in the gamma background, or a change in magnetic poles that temporarily deprived the planet of its protective shell.

For some time now, the asteroid hypothesis has become very popular. Say, at the end of the Cretaceous period, a huge meteorite crashed into the Earth, throwing billions of tons of dust into the stratosphere, which shielded the surface of the planet, which led to the death of green plants, and after them, the rest of the fauna. In addition, the fall of such a meteorite could provoke a revival of terrestrial volcanism, which noticeably aggravated the situation. It should be noted that serious paleontologists do not particularly support this point of view.

Where did the asteroid hypothesis come from? In the mid-1960s, in geological deposits dating from the boundary of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic (about 67 million years ago), scientists discovered a layer of blue clay with an abnormally high content of the rare metal iridium (20 times more than the average in the earth's crust). Subsequently, many similar anomalies were found (in some of them, the concentration of iridium exceeded the background by 120 times), and all of them turned out to be the same age - they lay on the border of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic.

Since there is very little iridium in the earth's crust, and in meteorite matter (primarily in iron meteorites, which are considered fragments of planetary nuclei) it is found in excess, the American physicist Alvarez associated the iridium anomaly with the fall of an asteroid. He estimated its diameter at 10-12 kilometers and even indicated the place of the disaster - the Yucatan Peninsula, where he managed to find an impressive crater about 150 kilometers in diameter.

The fall of such an asteroid would greatly shake our planet: a tsunami wave of monstrous strength and height would devastate the coasts tens and hundreds of kilometers deep, and a grandiose dust cloud would eclipse the sun for a long time. A six-month absence of sunlight would have killed green plants (the processes of photosynthesis would have stopped), and then (along the food chains) animals, both land and sea.

Since Alvarez put forward his impact hypothesis in 1980 (from the English. impact- "blow"), a lot of time has passed. To date, several dozen iridium anomalies are already known, and in geological deposits of very different ages, but it is not possible to connect them with the mass death of flora and fauna. Moreover, geologists have at their disposal a number of craters much more impressive than the notorious Yucatan. The diameter of some of them reaches 300 kilometers, but absolutely nothing serious has happened to the planetary biota (and this has been established reliably). Which is quite natural, because the biosphere is by no means a children's constructor, the elements of which can be shuffled and folded at random, but a stable homeostat that can effectively resist different kind perturbations.

The famous Russian paleontologist K. Yu. Eskov notes:

In this sense, the situation with the Eltanin asteroid (about 4 km in diameter), which fell in the late Pliocene, about 2.5 million years ago, on the shelf between South America and Antarctica; the remnants of the asteroid were recently raised from a crater formed on the seafloor. The consequences of this fall look quite catastrophic: kilometer-long tsunamis threw the marine fauna inland; it was then that very strange fauna burials with a mixture of marine and land forms appeared on the Andean coast, and purely marine diatoms suddenly appeared in Antarctic lakes. As for the remote, evolutionarily significant consequences, they simply did not exist (the traces of this impact are contained within one stratigraphic zone), i.e. absolutely no extinctions followed all these terrible perturbations.

Thus, the picture is very interesting. As soon as iridium anomalies began to be purposefully searched, it immediately became clear that their rigid connection to the mass death of dinosaurs (or any other organisms) was nothing more than an illusion. The fossil remains of the Mesozoic lizards unequivocally testify: the catastrophic scenario of the Meltian Paleogene extinction is no good, since some groups of dinosaurs disappeared long before the iridium anomaly, while others sank into oblivion much later. The process dragged on for hundreds of thousands and millions of years, so there can be no talk of any swiftness.

Therefore, the asteroid hypothesis, as well as all other "impact" scenarios, can be sent to the archive with peace of mind, since they involve the simultaneous destruction of flora and fauna. Meanwhile, even the mass death of marine organisms at the end of the Cretaceous (much more hasty than the extinction of dinosaurs) was instantaneous only by geological standards and stretched out for a fair period - according to various estimates, from 10 to 100 thousand years. As for reptiles, they did not become extinct overnight.

K. Yu. Eskov writes:

How so?! And it’s very simple: the extinction of dinosaurs goes through the entire Late Cretaceous with more or less constant speed, but starting from a certain moment, this decline ceases to be compensated by the emergence of new species; old species die out - and new ones do not appear to replace them, and so on until the complete destruction of the group. (An analogy: the country is losing the war not because the enemy began to inflict unprecedentedly high losses on the front, but for another reason - tank and aircraft factories stopped in the rear due to lack of raw materials.) In other words, at the end of the Cretaceous, there was a non-catastrophic extinction dinosaurs, but the non-appearance of new ones to replace them (this, you see, noticeably changes the picture). This means that we can talk about a fairly long natural process.

Alternative versions are no more convincing - for example, the hypothesis of a sudden change in magnetic poles or a supernova explosion near the solar system. Of course, the magnetic polarity reversal is a very unpleasant thing, since the streams of high-energy charged particles flying from the Sun deviate in the magnetic field lines, forming the onion scales of the radiation belts. If, however, its thick magnetic “fur coat” is torn off our planet, then hard radiation will freely reach the surface of the Earth.

But, firstly, the leapfrog of the magnetic poles is by no means an exotic, but a natural periodic process, and the data of special studies, as a rule, do not reveal a relationship between global biospheric crises and changes in terrestrial magnetism. And secondly, the biosphere as a whole is an impeccably debugged homeostat that easily resists any outside interference.

Explosion supernova- cataclysm of galactic scale. If such an event occurs in the vicinity of the solar system (according to astronomers, this happens once every 50-100 million years), then the X-ray and gamma-ray fluxes will not only destroy the ozone layer, but also sweep away part of the earth's atmosphere, provoking the so-called "effect highlands”, which not all organisms can survive. However, even in this case, the extinction will most likely not be sudden, but will stretch over tens and hundreds of millennia. In addition, hard radiation and the effect of high mountains should primarily affect the population of land and shallow water, but in reality, as we know, the situation was exactly the opposite: the flora and fauna of the open sea suffered the most, including microscopic ones, and of the inhabitants of the land For some reason, only dinosaurs became victims of the Great Dying.

This amazing selectivity is generally the most vulnerable point of all impact hypotheses: indeed, why did dinosaurs become extinct, while crocodiles survived and survived safely to this day? It is possible that the unprecedented popularity of various kinds of "impact" versions is mainly due to the success of observational astronomy over the past 20–30 years.

As soon as we are engaged in debunking idle myths, it is necessary to say a few words about the fauna of the Mesozoic. In almost any textbook, you can read that the Mesozoic era was the era of dinosaurs, and the Cenozoic era is the age of mammals that came to replace them. Meanwhile, this is a typical scientific prejudice.

Few people know that mammals were contemporaries of dinosaurs (they appeared on Earth almost simultaneously - at the end of the Triassic) and successfully coexisted with them for 120 million years. Moreover, if you sort through the bones of the fossil remains of all Mesozoic creatures, it turns out that the number of mammal species significantly exceeded the number of dinosaur species. True, our distant ancestors, vaguely reminiscent of South American possums, were at that time small and timid creatures, leading a predominantly nocturnal lifestyle.

With certain reservations, the very term “Great Dying” itself can be called a near-scientific myth. And if we are talking about the scale, then the Permian-Triassic extinction should have been called great - a grandiose biospheric cataclysm that happened at the turn of the Paleozoic and Mesozoic. In general, it was the largest in the history of our planet: if at the end of the Cretaceous about a quarter of families went into oblivion, then during the Permian-Triassic extinction, 50% of families, 70% of genera and 90% of species disappeared from the face of the Earth. In addition, all marine ecosystems have changed radically. It would be worth noting that all attempts to link the Late Permian crisis with the asteroid impact ended in absolute collapse - no traces of the impact were found in the corresponding horizons.

So, what was the reason for the extinction of the dinosaurs? One of two things: either climatic changes at the turn of the Cretaceous and Cenozoic, or purely “natural” causes - a radical restructuring within ecosystems and a change in communities.

Let's figure it out in order. We are used to the fact that the planetary climate is distinguished by a pronounced latitudinal zonality: tropical rainforests grow on the equator, savannas lie periodically moistened to the south and north of them, where countless herds of ungulates graze, and even further to the north and south stretches a strip of deserts scorched by the sun and semi-deserts. The subtropics give way to temperate forests - deciduous and coniferous, and they gradually give way to the cold tundra, where almost nothing grows. Well, eternal frost and eternal ice reign at the poles.

But it was not always so. The Mesozoic is a classic example of a thermoera, when there was no latitudinal zonality, and the global climate resembled the current subtropical Mediterranean type. It was warm and quite comfortable at high latitudes and even at the pole, but at the same time it was not too hot at the equator. In short, the temperature gradient - both seasonal and daily - was barely perceptible. But at the end of the Cretaceous, the thermoera was replaced by a cryoera with a latitudinal temperature difference.

Dinosaurs were cold-blooded (poikilothermic) animals. Unable to regulate their body temperature "from the inside", they were completely dependent on their habitat, but in the even climate of the Mesozoic, this did not cause them much trouble. If there is an abundance of heat outside, and impressive dimensions do not allow to cool during the night (most dinosaurs were large creatures), then maintaining a high body temperature will not be difficult. And all this without any participation of their own metabolism, for which mammals spend 90% of the energy they consume with food.

This curious phenomenon is called inertial homoiothermy (warm-bloodedness), and many scientists believe that thanks to this valuable quality, the dinosaurs became the rulers of the Mesozoic. And when the climate changed radically at the end of the Cretaceous, the giant lizards disappeared.

It would seem that we have found the answer, but again something does not converge. Why did dinosaurs die out, while other reptiles - also cold-blooded - continue to exist to this day? Why did the Cretaceous crisis affect mainly marine life, while land creatures survived it calmly? Why did some groups of dinosaurs begin to actively die out long before the fateful calendar date, while others slowly lived out their lives in the Paleogene?

Perhaps it makes sense to look for the answer elsewhere - in the structure of ecosystems? Let us remind the reader about nondescript Mesozoic mammals that lived side by side with pangolins for 120 million years without intersecting with them. These small insectivorous creatures, similar to modern possums or hedgehogs, occupied their ecological niche, which no one encroached on. But in the Cretaceous period, the situation changed radically.

K. Yu. Eskov describes these events as follows: evolution spurred on the sluggish metabolism of primitive mammals and made a "phytophage in a small size class" on this new metabolic basis. (Herbivorous dinosaurs were very large animals.) And if a small phytophage has appeared, then a predator will certainly arise, which will not be limited to hunting for close relatives, but will grab everyone who can afford it. Therefore, a baby dinosaur - a small defenseless lizard that does not have inertial homeothermy - will instantly become a tasty prey for such a round-the-clock active predator.

The version is undoubtedly interesting, but it does not answer all the tricky questions. And here genetics, understood in the broadest sense of the word, will come to our aid. Let's talk about marginality as the antipode of narrow specialization, because the organic world develops in this way.

Once again, let us recall the Mesozoic mammals, who voluntarily ceded the world to magnificent reptiles and vegetate on the sidelines of evolution. Huddled in back corners, they were the real marginals, since they occupied those few ecological niches that the ruling class ignored with magnificent casualness.

The food base of herbivorous dinosaurs was gymnosperms and ferns, which were widespread as far back as the Devonian. Angiosperms, or flowering, flora, which appeared at the beginning of the Cretaceous period, were forced to settle in the backyards, since the gymnosperms dominated. Thus, flowering plants were just as marginalized as the small Mesozoic mammals. They had no choice but to occupy empty lands where there were no established communities of gymnosperms: landslides, burnt areas, river banks, that is, biotopes that are commonly called “disturbed”. And the species themselves, settling in such conditions, biologists call "coenophobic", that is, they are afraid of communities, preferring to exist separately.

However, the tactical loss ultimately turned into an important strategic advantage. Firstly, the flowering plants that settled on the “bad” lands no longer allowed gymnosperms there, and secondly, they had a flower, which played a decisive role in the struggle for existence. If the gymnosperms for the reproduction of their own kind entirely relied on the wind, which passively carried their pollen, and therefore were forced to settle in a heap, then the flowering plants actively attracted insects, which increased their viability by an order of magnitude.

The existence of flowering plants did not depend on the elements, and angiosperms could afford the luxury of living in scattered wastelands. In addition, a new type of flora has learned to form herbaceous forms that not only effectively resist erosion, but also quickly capture free land.

The change of plant communities turned into a real disaster. Contrary to popular belief, not only dinosaurs died out, but also 25% of the Mesozoic families of invertebrates - cephalopods and bivalves, unicellular radiolarians, diatoms, foraminifers and other representatives of planktonic organisms. Their calcium shells formed grandiose deposits, which is why this period of the geological record was called the Cretaceous.

So inconspicuous yesterday's outcasts - flowering plants and mammals - crushed the dominant fauna and flora of the Mesozoic.

The onset of flowering plants today is commonly called the great angiospermization (from lat. angiospermae- "angiosperms"). When the new type of flora began to decisively predominate, what happened is what always happens when the foundation is destroyed: the building simply collapsed. After all, the kingdom of plants is exactly the foundation on which the floors of herbivorous animals and predators stand, and they are interconnected not only by food chains, but also by more complex relationships.

Dinosaurs tried to adapt to a new diet - they had beaks and powerful tooth batteries for grinding highly abrasive food. However, it did not work out well for them, especially in cereal pasture systems, where they obviously lost to ungulates. In addition, herbaceous forms of flowering plants form a sod that reduces erosion and organic runoff into fresh waters and the oceans, which dealt a severe blow to marine invertebrate communities.

The thing is that the vast majority of the creatures that inhabited the planet in the late Cretaceous, advanced too far along the path of narrow specialization. For the time being, this gave them excellent chances of survival, but every advantage sooner or later turns into a disadvantage. Attachment to the communities of gymnosperms eventually played a cruel joke with the lizards: when the flowering ones went on the offensive, taking one territory after another from the former owners of life, the mammals easily joined the newly formed communities. But the dinosaurs could not do this and ended up in an evolutionary dead end, since their adaptive resources were wasted long ago. And for marginal mammals, such a turn of events was only at hand. Having experienced an explosion of speciation under new conditions, they populated the entire planet.

Of course, not only such large taxa as a class of animals or a type of plants can be marginal. Separate biological species, too, as a rule, do not sin with complete uniformity for the entire set of features. Moreover, the higher the genetic diversity of a species or population, the greater its adaptive potential. Such a community will almost always find a way to prolong its existence in the changed conditions. And even with a stable and measured life, intraspecific marginals can play an important role.

For example, winged individuals are occasionally found in populations of wingless water striders. There are very few of them - only 4%. They have genetic differences, but at the same time they can interbreed with their wingless companions and produce offspring. It turned out that these flying geeks are able to migrate over fairly long distances, thus ensuring genetic continuity between the water strider population of all reservoirs. Four percent of the marginalized for this task is more than enough.

I must say that almost every biological species has, just in case, such an emergency reserve in the form of a rare genotype or an unusual form that allows you to survive difficult times. Let us repeat once again: the genetic diversity of a species or population is the key to its evolutionary success, so the marginalized should be treated not only with respect, but also with care.

So, the emergence and wide distribution of flowering plants at the end of the Early Cretaceous (about 30 million years before the death of dinosaurs) not only radically changed the structure of continental communities, but also killed the Mesozoic pangolins that lost their plasticity, hopelessly stuck in dead ends of evolution. Of course, climatic perturbations could also play a role, but the key event, the starting point, was almost certainly this very fact - the onset of angiosperms.

From the book The Disappeared World author Akimushkin Igor Ivanovich

Are they all dead? Summer 1933. Walking along the coast in the morning, engineer A. Palmer suddenly heard a deafening splash, as if ... However, let's listen to the engineer: “I thought that a storm had suddenly begun, but not a single leaf moved on the trees. Looking at the lake

From the book of the Dinosaur, look in the depths author Kondratov Alexander Mikhailovich

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From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1 [Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and Medicine] author

Dinosaurs in all dimensions “The dragon, flying, approached the earth, fell and died. His bones went deep into the ground and became stone…” So it is said in an old Mongolian tale. "Dragon bones", the fossilized remains of dinosaurs, were long known to the Mongols, who roamed

From the book Anthropological Detective. Gods, Humans, Monkeys... [Illustrated] author Belov Alexander Ivanovich

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From the book In the wilds of time author Chizhevsky German Mikhailovich

Unknown dinosaurs The mysterious death of dinosaurs gives rise to many hypotheses (the last of them explains the extinction of dinosaurs by the fall of an asteroid, but this is again a hypothesis, not a proven fact). Almost every year brings new discoveries, in the light of which dinosaurs

From the book Chimera and Antichimera author Shvetsov Mikhail Valentinovich

From the book Evolution author Jenkins Morton

WHERE DID THE DINOSAURS DIE FROM? Recently, one can often hear a question that has already become rhetorical: why did dinosaurs die out? And with all the variety of answers, for some reason, another question does not sound at all: where did these dinosaurs come from on Earth? Well, it’s boring and

From the book The Newest Book of Facts. Volume 1. Astronomy and astrophysics. Geography and other earth sciences. Biology and medicine author Kondrashov Anatoly Pavlovich

Dinosaurs, or diva-lizards Descendants of archosaurs especially multiplied in the second half of the Mesozoic era. They were of exceptional variety. Some remained predators with short front legs. All of them had a thick and very strong tail, which was

From the book Life in the Depths of Ages author Trofimov Boris Alexandrovich

How Dinosaurs Evolved Expeditions excavating in the Gobi Desert found nests with eggs several times. It has been suggested that these are the eggs of large turtles. But the latest research has shown that these are dinosaur eggs. Dinosaur eggs have been found in

From the book Evolution [ Classic Ideas in the light of new discoveries] author Markov Alexander Vladimirovich

Conversation 8. Dinosaurs - ionizing radiation - man In 1991, it was 150 years since the discovery of the Permian system by the English geologist Roderick Murchison. As it is written in the scientific and biographical book of P. K. Chudinov, Ivan Antonovich Efremov (Moscow: Nauka, 1987), Murchison decided

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DINOSAURS During the Triassic period (245-202 million years ago), reptile archosaurs (ruling pangolins) evolved into four main groups: two orders of dinosaurs, pterosaurs and crocodiles. Two groups of dinosaurs (lizard and ornithischian) were in no more

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Ornithischian DINOSAURS The ornithischian dinosaurs are scientifically called Ornithischia. The shape of their pelvis is such that the bones of the legs are directed downward, parallel to each other. All of them were herbivorous and in the era of the spread of these dinosaurs - in the Jurassic and Cretaceous periods (202-65

From the author's book

Lizard DINOSAURS Lizard dinosaurs (Saurischia), which appeared earlier than another group, had a pelvic structure similar to other reptiles. The two bones of their legs diverged in different directions. Some of them were herbivores, others were carnivores. They often

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Why did dinosaurs become extinct? According to the theory that currently has the largest number of supporters, an asteroid with a diameter of about 10 kilometers fell to Earth 65 million years ago. Even the place of its fall has been established - the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. The energy released

From the author's book

DINOSAURS - AMAZING AND TERRIBLE LIZARDS The ancestors of these dinosaurs were "early reptiles" - thecodonts, which also gave rise to crocodiles, flying dinosaurs and birds. They were small, the size of a rooster or a little more, agile pangolins that lived at the end of the Paleozoic and at the beginning

From the author's book

Dinosaurs take over the air The modern world is teeming with flying creatures - insects, birds, bats; there are others who, although not real flyers, are no longer quite terrestrial inhabitants - tree frogs, squirrels, woolly wings, lizards - “flying dragons”.

Dinosaurs took part in wars in the 16th century. A lot of things do not fit into the history that is taught to us in schools and not only. We firmly believe that dinosaurs died out millions of years ago, because this is the official version, but is it really so? It turns out that there are many hypotheses that these prehistoric animals lived next to humans for many years, after the "Christmas". The painting "Suicide of Saul" by artist Pieter Brueghel the Elder, 1562, is a direct confirmation of this. On it, among other things, the troops depict riders riding dinosaurs! (Sergey Isofatov).

Original taken from sibved Are dinosaurs the same age as humans?

This idea has long appeared (below I will try to state it). And, now, quite scientific information about the surviving organic matter in the bones of dinosaurs caught my eye. Agree, for 65 million years. any organic material will decompose into mineral substances, or petrify, acquire inorganic features as well.
But, despite this age, there are such facts:

For twenty years, researchers have been puzzled by discovering traces of DNA and radioactive carbon in the bones of dinosaurs that died out "millions of years" ago.

Many dinosaur fossils include fragments of real bones that have not had time to mineralize, in other words, become fossilized. For many researchers, the contents of these bones were a complete surprise. Since the 90s of the last century, scientists have made a number of discoveries, finding blood cells, hemoglobin, easily degradable proteins and fragments of soft tissues, in particular elastic ligaments and blood vessels, in the bones of dinosaurs. And what deserves special attention is DNA and radioactive carbon.

Evolutionists now have to solve a formidable problem to explain the supposedly 65-million-year-old age of these bones. As Dr. Mary Schweitzer, who was involved in the discovery of blood cells, said,
“If a blood sample changes beyond recognition after just a week, how could these cells have survived?”
But really, how? In an organism that died out millions of years ago, they, of course, could not have survived. They could only be preserved in remains that were quickly buried under catastrophic conditions and were under a layer of sedimentary rocks. Which is perfectly explained by the global flood.

But since the evolutionary worldview has a strong position in scientific circles, publishing the results of such a study turned out to be quite difficult. "One reviewer told me that it doesn't matter to him what the data points to, it's just not possible," says Dr. Schweitzer. “In a reply letter, I asked him: “Then what data will convince you?” - "None."

Schweitzer recalls how her attention was initially drawn to a strong putrid smell from a T. rex skeleton found near Hell Creek, Montana. When she mentioned this to Jack Horner, an experienced paleontologist, he replied that all the bones from Hell Creek smelled like that. The multimillion-year-old dinosaur bones belief is so deeply rooted in the minds of paleontologists that none of them has ever paid attention to the atypical “smell of death” right under their noses. Even Schweitzer herself, despite her many discoveries, apparently cannot or does not want to move away from the established worldview. Look at the chronology of discoveries over two decades - clear and consistent indications that something is rotten in the paleontological kingdom with its theories about dinosaurs that died out millions of years ago.

In 1993, Mary Schweitzer unexpectedly discovers blood cells in the bones of dinosaurs.
In 1997, hemoglobin is found, as well as distinguishable blood cells in the bones of a Tyrannosaurus Rex.
In 2003, traces of the protein osteocalcin. In 2005, elastic ligaments and blood vessels.
In 2007, collagen (an important bone structural protein) in Tyrannosaurus rex bones.
In 2009, the easily degradable proteins elastin and laminin, and again collagen in the platypus dinosaur. (If the remains were really as old as it is customary to date, they would not have any of these proteins).
In 2012, scientists reported the discovery of bone tissue cells (osteocytes), actin and tubulin proteins, and DNA(!). (Research-calculated rates of decay of these proteins, and especially DNA, indicate that they could not have been stored in dinosaur remains for what is believed to be 65 million years after their extinction.)
In 2012, scientists report the discovery of radioactive carbon. (Given how quickly carbon-14 decays, even if the remains were a hundred thousand years old, there should be no trace of carbon-14 in them!)
***

In Canada, on the territory of the Dinosaur Park, scientists were able to find structures in the bones of a Cretaceous dinosaur that resemble red blood cells and collagen fibers. The finds allow us to take a fresh look at the structure of the body of ancient living beings.
In order to find traces of organics, cells and other elements of dinosaur flesh, the researchers came up with a special method for analyzing photographs that are obtained using electron and ion microscopes. The latter is used in the IT industry when looking for defects in chips.

Thus, the British made this amazing discovery not due to the discovery of fossils, but thanks to a unique method of analyzing the remains of dinosaurs, as well as exhibits from the Museum of Natural History in the British capital, forgotten for over a hundred years.
It is generally accepted that protein molecules break down quickly and remain in fossils for no longer than four million years. After that, fragments remain that cannot give special ideas about the protein structure.
Scientist Sergio Bertazo, along with colleagues, studying the poorly preserved bones of ancient reptiles, noticed rather unusual ovoid formations with a very dense core. Red blood cells immediately came to mind.

The researchers began to compare them with a drop of blood from a living ostrich - in an ion mass spectrometer, they resembled the red blood cells of an emu.
Scientists immediately jumped at the argument that speaks in favor of the warm-blooded extinct dinosaurs.
In another bone fragment, fibrous structures similar to a spiral of collagen fibers were found. Since the structure of this protein differs in different groups of animals, paleontologists have acquired the opportunity to formulate a new tool for classifying reptiles.

Experts resorted to several analytical techniques. The location and composition of soft tissues in the fossil remains were established using an electron microscope. Then the laboratory assistants dissected the samples with an ion beam and examined their structure.
“Now we need further research, as we want to find out what the structures that we see inside the bones of dinosaurs can actually be. However, we believe that they are comparable to red blood cells and collagen fibers. And if we can confirm this, then in our hands will be a new way to delve into the past of dinosaurs and comprehend how they grew and developed," Bertazo emphasized.
Paleontologists reported their discovery in the journal Nature Communications.
***

Well, now I propose to see where and how dinosaur bones are found.

dinosaur graveyards

Dinosaur graveyards in China

Hill disturbed by road builders found bones

Elsewhere in China. The skeleton does not rest at a great depth, as it should be. After all, over 60 million years, the level of soil above it should accumulate huge (dust fallout and erosion, which brings soil material)

Also shallow depth

Generally a skeleton on the surface

Dinosaur eggs found in fossilized clay in China

Archaeologists have unearthed the world's largest dinosaur cemetery in Mexico. A total of 14 skeletons were found on an area of ​​200x50:

Judging by the location of these bones, the dinosaur got into a meat grinder.

Bones in the hillside

Dinosaur Park in Alberta (Canada):

This age is also given to dinosaurs due to the fact that their bones are found in the slopes of these hills:

Geologists have data on the age of these layers. After all, they have been accumulating for millions of years... And to accept an almost instantaneous period of formation of layers, as shown here http://sibved.livejournal.com/185060.html during a cataclysm, is for some reason not accepted. Although some scientific circles accept the same hypothesis of the death of dinosaurs during a cataclysm - from the fall of an asteroid. But she did not receive development and a slender model.

Dinosaur cemeteries are found at a certain latitude. Most likely, only this climate in these latitudes suited them. Just like elephants today, the savannas need a huge food base - dinosaurs with their size needed lush vegetation. To the north of the giants lived mammoths, woolly rhinos. And my opinion is that mammoths and dinosaurs lived at about the same time. They were destroyed by one global cataclysm with consequences in the form of a giant wave and a flood. Perhaps it was not in the later historical times but man already existed at that time.

Gobi Desert:

Bones almost on the surface

This copy seemed to have been around a couple of years ago.

And this one swam here recently in geologic time.

Dinosaur egg from Mongolia

Different types of dinosaurs died at the same time. Before the crash, everyone was the same

Do you understand my point that there is a possibility that the dinosaurs found near the surface are not 65 million years old?

And then the motives become clear

In the Takla Makan Desert (Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of China), eggs of giant prehistoric lizards have long been found. And not only find. Locals, not spoiled by the bounty of their arid land, have learned to use them as a supplement to their diet.
Before being eaten, a hardened dinosaur egg undergoes a long processing process: it is soaked in a special solution, which makes the shell come off and the egg itself softens, then boiled for a long time, salted, and only then served with various seasonings. This most, probably, exotic dish on Earth is called “symajo”.
However, its exoticism is not the point. And the fact that dinosaur eggs are really quite edible. And this fact refutes the whole building - so slender and finished ... it would seem - not only modern paleontology, but also other related sciences: geology, biology, history, finally.
Why? Yes, because the dinosaurs died out, as we all know very well - according to the assurances of this very paleontology - 65 million years ago, and everything we know about them stems from their fossilized remains extracted from the bowels of the earth. But what are these fossilized remains? These are not just bones or eggs, which, because of their antiquity, have become hard as stone; no, it's just a copy of those same bones and eggs, resulting from a process known as thessalization. Thessalization, or petrification, is the replacement of calcium contained in a living organism with silicon. There is nothing organic in the thessalized fossils, which is what allows them to survive for such a long period of time to the present day. But ... a stone, even if it has the shape of an egg, remains a stone, and no matter how you soak it, you will not be able to soften it. This means that “symajo” is not made of fossilized, but only dried dinosaur eggs! And this is a real disaster for paleontology, undermining all its foundations, and above all, the paleontological record of the Earth!
The problem with "non-fossilized" dinosaur eggs is that for 65 million - and just a million - years, they could not be physically preserved. Because, having lost their moisture, the eggs during this period would first mummify - just like Egyptian pharaohs– and then crumble to dust. But… they just dried up! And it turns out that ceratosaurs, diplodocus and other inhabitants of Takla Makan laid them not 65 million years ago, but literally “yesterday”, some 10-12 thousand years ago! By the way, the remains of other extinct creatures are of the same age - mammoths, whose meat frozen in permafrost was also eaten by the population of the north quite recently.
But... dinosaurs are contemporaries of mammoths?! After all, 65 million years are not taken from the ceiling, all paleontologists of the world unanimously assure us that such a gap in time has passed since the giants of the Cenozoic era shook the earth with their steps. And there is no reason not to believe them!
At first glance, yes. And if you look at these assurances and unbiased?
Already at a second glance, you realize with surprise that it was from the ceiling, and from nowhere else, that these most notorious million years were taken. Or rather, from the categorical statement of Charles Lyell (1797-1875), the founder of modern geology, a contemporary and colleague of another widely known Charles - Darwin. Captivated by the ideas of the latter, Lyell said: "the forces now acting both on the earth's surface and under it may be identical in kind and degree with those that in remote epochs produced geological changes", and "geologists have so misinterpreted the signs of a sequence of events , which was considered centuries where the numbers meant millennia, and millennia where the language of nature meant millions of years ... "He said this in response to the attacks of opponents of the theory of evolution, who stated that the changes noted in this theory, the time of the existence of the Earth just not enough. And ... they believed him! Without evidence and facts, just - believed! Since then, paleontologists have followed the course indicated by him, unable to leave the paved track.
But what about all these ultra-modern methods for determining the age of fossil objects, to which the same paleontologists pray, like icons: the radiocarbon method, the potassium-argon method, the uranium method? Unfortunately, all of them not only do not differ in any acceptable accuracy - for example, the errors issued by the radiocarbon dating method are comparable to the age of the object under study - but also ... the length of time for which they can be applied. After all, all these methods are based on the half-lives of certain radioactive elements, and, therefore, they cannot “see” an object whose age exceeds this period by more than twice. For uranium, for example - the most "long-playing" of the elements - this period is 24 million years; consequently, fossils and objects that are older than 48 million years are no longer accountable to him. And again, we return to the question we started with: where did the 65 million years since the death of the dinosaurs come from, not to mention 5.5 billion years since the Earth was formed? And the answer, unfortunately, also remains the same: from the ceiling! Because it is FAVORABLE for paleontologists!
True, in fairness, it is worth noting that paleontologists themselves do not seem to be too satisfied with the situation that has developed in their science and therefore are looking for other, more suitable, methods of determining age. And they even found one such - according to the rate of sedimentation. It has long been known that our Earth is "getting fat" - adding an average of one centimeter per hundred years to its diameter. This happens due to the decomposition of organic remains - animals and plants - as well as inorganic sediments: sand and clay, which "supply" mountains collapsing due to weathering. The rate of this accumulation of precipitation, of course, is uneven and depends on the terrain - tropical jungles “thicken” the fastest, and deserts the slowest. And 1 centimeter is precisely the average value of this speed, in reality it ranges from 1 millimeter to 3 centimeters per century.
Perfectly! Some certainty! But ... Ah, this is the notorious "but"! How does it ruin everything! It's so easy to believe that scientists who are engaged in their science all their lives know what they are doing and what they are talking about! Believe - and do not check their statements! And it would be worth it! And why wait? Let's do it right now, especially since it will not require much effort. For this test is available to any first-grader. So, 1mm × 650,000 centuries = 650,000 mm = 650m! Six hundred and fifty meters! That is how much precipitation should have accumulated over the 65 million years that have passed - supposedly - since the death of the dinosaurs!
Of course under pressure upper layers the lower ones are pressed, becoming the deeper, the thinner, however, this deformation can be neglected, especially if we take the lower bar for calculation - which we did. If we make a calculation based on the average value of sedimentation, then we will get a fantastic figure of 6.5 kilometers! And the sedimentary rocks that arose - allegedly - during the formation of the Earth, should generally lie at a depth ... from 55 to 550 kilometers! For comparison, an ultra-deep well on the Kola Peninsula, which remains a record to this day, barely reached 13 kilometers.
No one has ever excavated at such a depth! Yes, this was not required - the bones of dinosaurs are much closer to the surface - two or three meters; in some places, as in the same Takla Makan, they are generally barely covered with a thin layer of sand. Three meters ... 3000 millimeters ... Let's calculate the age. 3000mm × 100 years = 300,000 years. Three hundred thousand! But not 65 million! However, at such a depth, the compression and compaction of soil words is minimal, and in this case it is possible to calculate their age using the average value. And such a calculation gives a completely "childish" figure - 30,000 years! This is the REAL age of the layers, lying at a depth of 3 meters and containing the bones of "extinct millions of years ago" dinosaurs. And, looking at these figures, I just want to scream: people! Wake up! They shamelessly, shamelessly, shamelessly deceive you! And dinosaurs are not things of bygone years at all, but practically your contemporaries! This is directly stated by the traces found by those same paleontologists around the world. Fossilized footprints of dinosaurs - and people who passed next to these "terrible" lizards!
However, if we take the time of extinction of the dinosaurs as thousands, not millions, of years, then such a neighborhood becomes quite understandable and even natural. After all, it was 30 thousand years ago that man began to settle not only in Europe, but also in America, where for the most part his "abnormally ancient" petrified traces are found, an eyesore to modern orthodoxies from paleontology.
It seems that paleontologists themselves are no longer too satisfied with the classical chronology. In any case, having found soft tissues, flexible (!), branched blood vessels with dried, but not destroyed (!) hemoglobin, and sinewy , but an elastic bone matrix, the author of the find, Mary Higby Schweitzer, a paleontologist from the University of North Carolina, in an article in Earth magazine in 1997 "let slip":
"Perhaps the mysterious structures were, at best, derivatives of blood modified by millennia of geological processes." ("Perhaps the mysterious structures were, at best, derived from blood, modified over the millennia by geological processes").
“Millennia” wrote (millennia), not “millions”, and certainly not “tens millions” (tens of millions)!
However, as I noted earlier, 2-3 meters is not at all the universal depth of the fossilized remains of dinosaurs. In most places, these bones are found almost on the surface, and in this case their age is limited to "only" a few thousand, and sometimes even several hundred years! And this is already a historical period, a period in which humanity, having mastered writing, used it to the fullest, entering all the more or less significant events into its annals. Do we honor them?
According to ancient Celtic chronicles, King Moridd was killed and swallowed up in 336 BC by the giant monster Belua. The monster "swallowed the body of Morvidus (the name of Moridda in Latin transcription. Auth.), Like a large fish swallows a small one."
The early Britonian king Peredar was more fortunate - he won a fight with a similar monster in the Llyn Llyon area (Wales). British chronicles also tell of many places in what is now Wales that were inhabited by the monsters Aphank and Karrog. One of the last Afanki was killed in 1693 (!) by Edward Lloyd at Llainar Afanke on the Conway River. And in the chronicles of the Canterbury Temple (Great Britain) it is noted that on Friday, September 16, 1449, near the village of Little Conrad on the border of the counties of Suffolk and Essex, many residents observed a fight between two giant reptiles.
But why has everything changed so much? Why did dinosaurs become extinct? Well, taking into account all the above chronicles, as well as unquoted, but well-known fairy tales, epics, legends and myths, we can safely say that the last representatives of this species were destroyed, sadly, by the man himself. But dinosaurs were still - and paleontology does not lie in this - perhaps the most numerous species of living creatures on our planet, and a person simply physically could not serve as the main reason for their disappearance. So, there was another, much more significant reason, and sent the "terrible lizards" on the path of extinction. The man has just completed what she started. "The reason is the Yucatan meteorite!" - any more or less educated person will say now. And ... again he will be mistaken!
Until 1991, there were several dozen theories designed to explain the inexplicable disappearance of ancient lizards - from climate change to a supernova explosion in the vicinity of the Sun. But then the Yucatan meteorite crater was discovered, and these theories were forgotten, deciding that the answer had finally been found.
Paradoxically, but the main blow to this "solution" is applied by paleontologists themselves. More precisely, their finds are the very petrified traces that were mentioned a little earlier. Moreover, human footprints here can be left “behind the scenes” with a clear conscience and focus on the footprints of dinosaurs. Because if the thessalization of bone remains is still understandable, then the thessalization of traces has no reasonable explanation - neither in the light of meteorite, nor any other theory. And paleontologists, who are well aware of this, try once again not to draw attention to these prints: “Here are the traces of a dinosaur that passed here 65 million years ago ... And here is its skeleton! Just look how big and scary he is, how well all his bones are preserved! And what teeth he has! With such teeth, you can easily bite into a car! .. What, traces? What about traces? Footprints as footprints, what is special about them? Do not be distracted and look better at the bones!
And traces are just special, because they simply SHOULD NOT exist! Think about it - in order to preserve them for MILLIONS (!) Years, they had to (for the same millions of years): a) stop raining; b) blowing winds; c) Animals capable of trampling them will disappear. There are billions of living beings on Earth, but nowhere and never, with the exception of the "dinosaur" period, their traces have not been preserved for more than a week; usually this period is one, maximum two days. And that's it! They are erased by the elements and other animals that passed later. And there are dinosaur footprints! So what could be the reason for their persistence?
Undoubtedly, it was a catastrophe on a global scale, and the Yucatan meteorite has nothing to do with it - precisely because of the weakness of its impact on the earth's bio- and geosphere. Its influence, even according to the most daring assumptions of astronomers, geologists and paleontologists themselves, was already fading away within a radius of 2000 kilometers from the place of its fall; where did he have to influence the WHOLE Earth? And - at the same time?
So what killed the ancient lizards?
A supernova explosion can be rejected immediately: X-ray radiation - the only consequence of such an explosion that could be felt on Earth - would simply sterilize our entire planet, destroying all life, down to bacteria, so now we would not discuss this issue with you. Changing of the climate? It is now proven that dinosaurs, at least some of them, were warm-blooded, and even a sharp cold snap could not lead to their widespread death. Rather, it would have destroyed the turtles and crocodiles that were contemporaries of the dinosaurs - and calmly survived their death. What then?
In 1971, in the Gobi desert (Mongolia), paleontologists discovered the fossilized remains of a protoceratops and a velociraptor woven in a fight. Both - both the predator and its prey - died STANDING, without even opening their jaws, clenched on each other. From everything it turned out that their death was unexpected for them and simultaneous, moreover, lightning fast. Something had killed them on the spot, turning them into monuments to themselves; and after that, they not only did not collapse lifeless to the ground, but for some reason more than one scavenger did not touch them either, leaving the corpses untouched.
The only reason why the body seems to freeze in the position that preceded its death is ... no, not cold - even liquid nitrogen is not able to instantly freeze a living organism, especially one as well-fed as a protoceratops, which was very large in size and structure. looks like a modern pig - and ... fever! Burning heat, not less than 5000 degrees, leading to convulsive contraction of ligaments and tendons and instantly drying them up, as a result of which the body loses all mobility for a very long time. However, this heat should act on the body for no more than a few seconds, otherwise it will simply burn out, leaving only a bunch of charred bones. At the same time, such heat and the same duration leads to the sintering of the soil into a kind of concrete, on which the traces of those creatures that passed through this soil shortly before exposure to high temperature are perfectly preserved.
Nuclear explosion? Or, given the scale of what happened - a global nuclear war? No, although it will disappoint the adherents of the lost ancient civilizations. The fact is that a nuclear conflict, like a supernova explosion, would destroy not only dinosaurs, but in general all life, and our Earth would now be a radioactive ball covered with ashes, empty and completely lifeless. Then what?
All the heat and all the energy that we have on Earth has one and only source - the Sun. And it is to him that we must turn our attention in search of an answer.
The 11-year periods of activity of our central luminary have long been known. However, other cycles have also been identified - secular (80-90 years long) and millennial ones, lasting 1800-2000 years. By the way, the emergence of the Sahara desert is associated with the latter, some 4,000 years ago it was a land full of life, water and vegetation. Surprisingly, all the "suns" of the ancient Maya, into which they divided their calendar, were approximately 4,000 years, with the exception of the last, fifth "sun", lasting 5126 years. However, there is a special conversation about the Maya, but for now let's get back to our, not calendar, but the real Sun itself.
So, approximately every eleven, 85 and 1900 years, something happens to our luminary, and it begins to behave “inadequately”: it flares up, bringing down on the Earth a real flurry of all kinds of radiation - X-ray, ultraviolet, infrared, the consequences of which are felt by all meteorologically dependent - and not so much - people. Even the suicide of whales and dolphins, suddenly throwing themselves ashore, is now associated with these outbreaks, which disrupt the navigation of marine mammals in their native element.
We are already so accustomed to hearing about these solar storms, minimums and maximums of solar activity, that we do not think about what is hidden behind these so familiar words: that the Sun pulsates and periodically explodes like a supernova in miniature, dumping excess of its energy into the surrounding space. energy. This means that much more significant fluctuations can occur on it: explosions, whose energy is millions of times higher than the energy of flashes known to us. They CAN happen - and they did! As a result of one of these explosions, which occurred about a million years ago (oh, those millions!), Animals and birds - and people - formed the pigment melanin, which gave us black ravens, black cats - and the Negroid race. This is an indisputable fact recognized by astronomers, biologists, and paleontologists. However... the prescription of what happened makes it somehow insignificant in their eyes, and they dismiss the idea that this can - and should! - repeat! And that one of these explosions was the reason why the Earth suddenly turned into a red-hot steel furnace for a few seconds, killing the dinosaurs and conserving their traces!
So it’s not asteroids or aliens that are the main threat for us, but our sun, which gave us life, but can easily take it away. Not without reason, probably, the Mayans nevertheless divided their history precisely into “suns”; it seems that they, unlike us, knew perfectly well that it was the Sun that was the beginning of all things. And - its end.