Does a virus seem more logical than a meteoroid? for killing the dinosaurs? ?

Question

i realize this was millions of years ago... but i think they all got a little sick from a virus or something... seems so much more realistic.

Answer 1

asteroid and meteor.  one is out of the atmosphere, the other in.  And, no, it is very likely a catastrophic event such as an asteroid hitting the earth.  Millions of years ago there were many more meteors roaming the solar system than there are now, so it actually was fairly likely that one would hit the earth.  A virus could have happened too, but a meteor is a bit more likely.  The geologic record shows that there was a catastrophic event at the time when dinosaurs diminished.

Answer 2

No, a meteoroid is more logical, considering this is a big crater right off the yucatan peninsula which is probably what killed them. Either way, they were killed by natural phenomena, out fate will be the same one day.

Answer 3

Actually it doesn't.  A creature that has survived millions of years on earth could suffer massive losses if a new virus or other creature attacked them.  But just like some people do not get HIV from other people because their bodies have the necessary antibodies.  Some Dinosaurs would have the antibodies to fight the virus.  Now it is possible that the meteoroid had a entirely new virus that they had no resistance.  But then why did the small mammals and insects survive.

Answer 4

I've never been fond of any hypothesis that claims to be the sole and only cause of any historical (or prehistorical) event.

The likelihood is that there were a combination of a number of different factors that all combined to cause the mass extinctions at the end of the Cretaceous.

A virus is unlikely to be the sole cause, as in addition to every known dinosaur species, the mass extinction also wiped out marine groups like ammonites, and mosasaurs and plesiosaurs - while leaving crocodiles, turtles, and mammals.  It's hard to imagine a virus that would affect both giant carnosaurs like T. rex, and also kills off shelled squid-like molluscs.

However, environmental changes such as global climate change that would have occurred due to the shifting of ocean currents following the connection of North America and Asia in the land bridge that blocked off the Arctic and Bearpaw seas may have caused a lot of stress in many marine ecosystems.

A large comet or meteor impact then may have been the straw that broke the camel's back, causing mass extinction in many of the groups already stressed - but some groups that were better adapted to handle the climate change survived.

Much like the Fall of the Roman Empire, it probably wasn't just one thing, but all of them working together at the same time.  Viruses could very well have been one of the major factors in mobile groups like the dinosaurs - exposed to new diseases from the faunal interchange over the new land bridge, but it wouldn't have been the only thing happening.

Answer 5

One of the theories held by a small minority of qualified scientists is the dinosaurs died due to natural forces, a virus is one among many, that we see around the earth today. It includes volcanism, ice ages, viruses, and a large number of events we are familiar with. The majority view is of an asteroid or small comet hitting off the Yucatan Peninsula.