Publication History: Death of the Dinosaurs: A Magazine Article Review. Copyright © 1988, 2009, 2019 by DL Tolleson. All Rights Reserved. Excerpts from this work are permissible if author attribution is included. However, beyond this no part of this material may be reproduced in any form or by any means without written permission from the author.
Tolleson, DL. “Death of the Dinosaurs: A Magazine Article Review.”
DLTolleson.com, 2009.
http://www.dltolleson.com/research/dinosaurdeaths.php.
Tolleson, DL. “Death of the Dinosaurs: A Magazine Article Review.”
TheLighthousePress.com, 2016.
http://www.thelighthousepress.com/dltolleson.com/research/dinosaurdeaths.php.
Since the publication of the Science Digest article, and the writting of this review, the theory of an extinction event prompted by the impact of a celestial body has garnered wider acceptance. However, it should be noted that at the time of this proposed theory in the 1980s, the suggestion of a massive cataclysmic celestial impact was not new. As covered in my commentary for the paper The Secret of Atlantis: An Examination (available through this site’s Compendium), author Ignatius Donnelly (1831-1901) argued in 1883 for catastrophic planetary changes at the behest of a comet’s near orbital pass dispersing massive amounts of gravel. And prior to his death in 1965, author Otto Muck argued for an Asteroid striking Earth with the total force of, “4x10
There is a new school of thought concerning the extinction of prehistoric dinosaurs that disappeared from the Earth in the late Cretaceous period. The theory holds that a comet, asteroid or other large extraterritorial body collided with the Earth 65 million years ago and ended the 160 million-year-reign of the dinosaurs. The theory has attracted a wide acceptance as fact in the scientific community while becoming adversely unpopular with a number of scientists.
Further evidence found within layers of sediment in California have lead some scientists to believe they are dealing with molecules deposited by meteors.
In 1980 Luis Alvarez published a theory that stated a massive impact occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period. The theory was based on an element called Iridium, which was found with dinosaur’s fossils. Virtually non-existent in the Earth’s crust, Iridium is 10,000 times more likely to be present in extraterrestrial rocks. Finding Iridium in clays of the same age located in two separate areas of the world caused the Alvarez team to propose that the element had come from an extraterrestrial body striking the Earth. The impact, they proposed, created so much dust in the atmosphere that sunlight was blocked and prevented photosynthesis. Their conclusions set forth a revised theory of evolution.
There are scientists who completely agree with the theory and also suggest that mass extinctions occur approximately every 26 million years. Critics argue there aren’t facts to support repeated mass extinction events and that such schools of thought are not grounded is scientific evidence.
• Rensberger, Boyce. ‘Death of Dinosaurs: The True Story,’ Science Digest, May 1986, pps. 77—89.