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Course: American Museum of Natural History > Unit 1
Lesson 3: Dinosaur extinction- A brief history of mass extinctions
- Discarded theories for dinosaur extinction
- Were dinosaurs undergoing long-term decline before mass extinction?
- Are any dinosaurs still alive today?
- Are any dinosaurs still alive today?
- How did all dinosaurs except birds go extinct?
- How did all dinosaurs except birds go extinct?
- Quiz: Dinosaur Extinction
- Exploration Questions: Dinosaur Extinction
- Answers to Exploration Questions: Dinosaur Extinction
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Exploration Questions: Dinosaur Extinction
Grab your notebook or computer and write out your answer to each of the following questions. Then compare your answer to the suggested answer found in the “Answers to exploration questions” article. Have fun! (Hint: the information needed to answer these questions can be found in the video and the articles.)
1. If species go extinct all the time, how do scientists know when a mass extinction occurred? How do they know which organisms went extinct?
2. Scientists think a giant asteroid impact and huge volcanic eruptions may have contributed to the mass extinction 65 million years ago. List at least three ways that these events could have changed the environment.
3. Extinction theories suggest that blocked sunlight would have decreased photosynthesis in plants. Which kinds of dinosaurs—plant-eaters or meat-eaters—would have been affected by a change in photosynthesis? Explain your answer.
4. Scientists say that dinosaurs are not extinct. In fact, you see them every day. What do they mean?
Want to join the conversation?
- How do birds survive if they are dinosaurs?(3 votes)
- birds as we see them today are different from the first bird(archeopteryx).the birds appeared after the extinction of dinosaurs.(1 vote)
- So an asteroid hit the Earth and left a layer of iridium all around the world called the KT Boundary. Under this layer are dinosaur bones but none above it. If this event really caused their extinction why aren't the last bones directly on top of the layer instead of below it?(1 vote)
- because the older the rocks are, the deeper they are, thats why you dont find a tyrannosaurus rex fossil in your back yard.(2 votes)
- but did'nt the asteroid that hit the Gulf of Mexico affect the dinosaurs(1 vote)
- it did, causing severe enviromental disruption(1 vote)
- then how did the mammals survive ,as they lived as the dinosaurs got extinct(1 vote)
- I Guess Half Of Them; Died Because As You
Remember Some Of Those Dinosaurs Eat
Meat And They Might Have Eaten The Other Little Animals That's Not Their Size.(1 vote)
- So, basically the dinosaurs that lived on land went extinct before the flying type dinosaurs?(1 vote)