The Cretaceous-Paleogene Era

Dinosaurs for 163 million years had roamed the Earth (Dinosaur Worlds). They thrived and were one of the most successful groups of animals in the history of life on land(PBS). Then, 66 million years ago, the last group of dinosaurs disappeared forever; leaving us with the question - what killed the dinosaurs?, and whether it a gradual or a quick and calamitous end?
“Cretaceous-Paleogene Extinction Event, or the K-Pg for short”(SciShow), that took such a significant blow to life on Earth it marked the end of the Cretaceous Era and with it the entire Mesozoic Era, and gave way to the Paleogene Era, the first subdivision of the Cenozoic Era that continues today. Scientist have been discussing what happened to the dinosaurs since 1980 and have
The asteroid’s impact would of thrown enough dust into the atmosphere the sun’s rays would have been blocked darkening and chilling the Earth’s climate and chunks of meteorite that had also been thrown up into the atmosphere would have rained down as molten glass (SciShow). According to Ted-ED, the newest of TED’s initiatives, “The dust from the impact reduced or stopped photosynthesis for many plants starving herbivores and the carnivores that preyed on them.” Additionally the earth would of been plagued with highly acidic rainfall and firestorms (Dinosaur Worlds). The impact theory is so appealing because it explains pretty much all of the “common ground” about the K-Pg event. It explains the climate change, the iridium and would of been able cause mass extinction. In 1980 the collision was first theorized by geologist Walter Alvarez and his son after Walter was studying clay deposits from 65 million years ago and found levels of iridium hundreds time more than normal from sample in different parts of the world (SciShow). Other scientist started finding more evidence of an asteroid impact. Shocked quartz has been found that looked to have patterning that was caused by immense force some scientists suspect could only have been caused by an asteroid or comet impact (PBS). Scientists also found tektites which according to SciShow are “big tear-dropped shaped pieces of glass that form when rocks are thrown into the atmosphere by an impact and then melt on re-entry.” Then Dr. Alan Hildebrand also deduced, using other evidence that the asteroid hit near the Yucatan peninsula at the crater known as Chicxulub (BBC). Though many scientists believe the K-Pg event was caused by an huge asteroid some