Dinosaurs

[MathiasOfAthens]

Last surviving Dinosaur species. I remember reading an article a year back maybe where a dinosaur species was found to have survived the KT event for at least 100,000 years... which is a long time really, maybe I was wrong bout the years But I am certain the dinosaur was found around Texas, near the impact crater. Its possible the species migrated there but still... can anyone help me find information on post KT event species of dinosaurs? Besides the crocs and lizards, specifically the big animals we believed died out.

[Sphere]

The KT event is not the neat and clean line most people assume it is.

The mass extinction began long before for the KT event, with the number of species well reduced by the time the asteriod actually hit. Also, many species survived the KT event, and even some dinosaur species survived for a while.

The asteriod impact seems to have been the finishing blow in a mass extinction rather than its main cause.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Yeah I know about all that, and that volcanic eruptions and earthquakes followed the asteroid impact but I forget which big dinos survived the KT for quite a long time then died out. Not the species that survived up until now like lizards, crocs and birds.

[Phier]

There was a report using a new aging technique of a bone for a herbivore that was 700,000 years after the K-T event. This was early last year and from Mexico if I recall. There was another location in Colorado which seemed to show dinosaur fossils after the KT event. As far as I know, and its not as if this is my field of study, there is still controversy over the dating in both cases.

Their is some controversy but it wouldn't be shocking if there were small pockets which due to local conditions survived the mass extinction.

[MathiasOfAthens]

Thanks thats the key I was able to find this article about the herbivore you mentioned:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases...0127141707.htm

[Hobbes]

Many dinosaurs survived the Cretaceous extinction event. In fact I ate one of them for lunch today.

[MathiasOfAthens]

I did mention that I was not asking about crocs, lizards, and birds.

[InsaneHanz]

Are there any known living bipedal reptiles? I know some lizards can run on their hind legs but they spend most of their time on all fours. I think bipedal reptiles may have died with the dinosaurs.

[Vaðarholmr]

This is a question of great interest to me. Post!

[visser300]

Why did sea dunosaurs go extinct? I think that the meteor hit the surface of earth and would not affect food chain in sea, no?

[Vaðarholmr]

Well if there was clouds preventing sunlight, preventing planckton. There would be massive fish death.

[MathiasOfAthens]

The Asteroid immediate effect on the planet was a massive dust cloud that swept over the whole world and pretty much sacked everything within a couple days. This caused fires and destroyed vegetation that the herbivores needed. Not to mention the impact also caused debris to go into the atmosphere and return as raining fireballs.

The impact itself eventually set off volcanic eruptions that lasted several years and continued to pounded on the dinosaurs that survived the impact. The volcanic eruptions released raining fire balls down on the planet causing more fires that destroyed more vegetation that the impact failed to do.

Regarding the sea, the impact caused earthquakes both on land and under the water. The earthquakes would have moved the seas and caused tsunamies that killed vegetation and life on the coasts. There wasnt really massive dieoff of fish though.

Mosasaurs, plesiosaurs, pterosaurs and many species of plants and invertebrates also became extinct. Mosssasaurs were marine lizards or sea dinosaurs. But the marine lizards did not really die off like the Plesiosaurs and pterosaurs whose species died off for good. Dallasaurus were discovered to be a link between Mossasaurs and modern Komodo Dragons.

About 60% of a type of coral failed to pass the KT extinction event and about 98% of species that inhabited low waters near the shores also became extinct because of this. Colonial coral species rely upon symbiosis with photosynthetic algae, which collapsed after the K–T boundary.

There is no evidence that Amphibians died off. Frog and salamander species.

Testudines (turtles) and lepidosaurs (snakes, lizards, and worm lizards) are the only living members of the non-archosaurian taxa.

Living lepidosaurs include Rhynchocephalia (tuataras) and Squamata.

These species prob survived because of their size and ability to adapt and move to better waters. Unlike the mosasaurs and plesiosaurs, giant aquatic reptiles that became extinct.

[visser300]

You're really an dinosaur expert, sir. I even can't type the right latin name of T-Rex.

Thanks for your information

[MathiasOfAthens]

Tyrannosaurus Rex... its one of the easiest names. BBC makes great videos on the Dinos.

[cpdwane]

There's a few innacuracies that I can see people are perpetuating on this thread.

Firstly, there are no "sea Dinosaurs." Marine reptiles which lived during the age of the Dinosaurs, such as Plesiosaurs and Mosasaurs. Mosasaurs are from the same family as modern day monitor lizards,

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

but it would be innacurate to say that Mosasaurs are still alive today just because monitor lizards are. Monitor lizards are not directly descended from mosasaurs, in fact it's the other way round, and all of the monitor lizards that evolved to live in the sea (ie mosasaurs) went extinct in the KT extinction. All of the large marine reptile families (aside from turtles) that were around in the Cretacious went extinct in the KT extinction, with no exceptions (as far as we know.)


There were only a few species of Pterosaurs by the time of the end of the Cretacious, as they had been outcompeted by birds (a fact shown by the fact that the only Pterosaurs left were the really big ones like Quetzlcoatlos, which occupied an ecological niche which birds couldn't compete with.)

Dinosaurs (including birds) were the only group of bipedal reptiles alive at the time of the KT extinction, and of them only the birds survived.

As for the asteroid impact, nobody really understands quite how it wiped out the Dinosaurs, for example it is often stated that the asteroid impact caused acid rain. However this would have made the survival of amphibians very unlikely, and we know that the Amphibians were one of the least affected groups. There's also evidence around to suggest that the dinosaurs were not already going extinct before the extinction, and that they were thriving. But then there's evidence that points in the other direction, so really who knows. Personally I find it hard to believe that an asteroid impact would have caused volcanoes and earthquakes, although it's certainly true that there was volcanic activity in India at around that time.

[Vaðarholmr]

Yes, i hate that people refer to the other reptiles as "flying dinosaurs" of "sea dinosaurs" but i am so used to that i dont care.

[Copperknickers II]

I am extremely surprised crocodiles and the like managed to survive when even small plesiosaurs and related things didn't. Were there any other large species of animals that survived?

[Valiant Champion]

It's amazing how events that happened 65 million years ago can be discussed as if they happened a few years ago. It is almost described as if someone was standing watching it happen such as the collapse of the world trade center or the tsunami's of the south pacific.

interesting

[MathiasOfAthens]

I am extremely surprised crocodiles and the like managed to survive when even small plesiosaurs and related things didn't. Were there any other large species of animals that survived?

Whales survived. They were large species of animals.

Hadrosaurs also survived for at least a million years after the KT event.

It's amazing how events that happened 65 million years ago can be discussed as if they happened a few years ago. It is almost described as if someone was standing watching it happen such as the collapse of the world trade center or the tsunami's of the south pacific.

interesting

What are you saying God did all of this?

[Valiant Champion]

What are you saying God did all of this?

Not sure how you could interpret my message like that. What I am disputing is how one can be so sure an asteroid wiped the Dinosaur's out. This means that all the other theories about the Dinosaur die off are junk science because if we listen to you the asteroid hypothesis is a theory and thus (according to your arguments and others is as good as fact and not subject to debate cause the "nothing" did it.

To accuse me of saying "God did it" is like me asking you if the "nothing" did it when in fact the discussion has nothing to do with either.

whales survived lol