TLS02E04 The Dinosaur Extinction

Terrible Lizards

If there's one thing that everyone knows about dinosaurs it is that they are extinct. And of course this is to a degree quite wrong since birds are dinosaurs and are very much alive. Still, that Tyrannosaurus, Diplodocus, Stegosaurus and the rest are long gone is well known but the scientific (and often very unscientific) arguments about exactly what killed them off have been a source of discussion for over a century. Here we have a quick stroll through some of those ideas and deal with the prime suspect of the last 30 years an impact from outer space. Happily, we have the Bad Astronomer himself, Phil Plait, as our guest so the questions go both ways on dinosaurs and asteroids.

We hope you enjoy the cold open.

A short National Geographic article on the issue of asteroids vs volcanoes: https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/prehistoric-world/dinosaur-extinction/

A piece by Professor Mike Benton on mass extinctions: https://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=2ahUKEwiKnrO6tKDsAhVHTsAKHe0OCPwQFjABegQIDBAC&url=https%3A%2F%2Fbenton.blogs.bristol.ac.uk%2Ffiles%2F2019%2F07%2F2013Princeton.pdf&usg=AOvVaw0-67nK9sjE7cWteYZ5Usal

The American Museum of Natural History goes through some of the wonkier ideas for dinosaur extinction: https://www.amnh.org/exhibitions/dinosaurs-ancient-fossils/extinction/discarded-theories

Phil's Blog is here syfy.com/badastronomy @badastronomer