Dinosaurs were initially heavily weakened due to abrupt changes in the climate.
Paleontologists from the University of Michigan, USA in the analysis of the isotopic composition of fossilized shells came to the conclusion that for the mass extinction at the boundary of the Cretaceous and Paleogene periods could be impacted by two factors.
The hybrid hypothesis extinctions have long wandered among the scientists and it has now received a new confirmation.
Fossilized shells belonged to molluscs, which lived approximately 65 million years ago near the Antarctic (which, by the way, in those days, was covered by coniferous forests). For their analysis we have applied a new method using carbonate paleothermometry related isotopes.
The results of the analysis showed that in the interval of 150 thousand years, the temperature of water in the ocean were subjected to two sharp jumps, which in total led to the warming of 7.7 degrees Celsius. One of them coincided with massive volcanic activity on the territory of modern India, and the second with the appearance of the crater Cocoloba.
On this basis, scientists have concluded that the poor dinosaurs were initially heavily weakened due to abrupt changes in climate resulting from increasing the carbon dioxide content in the atmosphere. A bright point in the lives of these huge reptiles put an asteroid some time later. This theory, called the hybrid hypothesis of extinction, it was an event of catastrophic proportions, which caused the extinction of about 75% of the flora and fauna about 65 million years ago.
