Dinosaurs Essay, Research Paper

How the Dinosaurs Became Extinct

Dinosaurs, as we know are extinct. But the question is how they became extinct. It s a question many scientists and archaeologists have been pondering and many of them have different ideas about it. I have collected and created some of the different hypothesis scientists have came up with. I have chosen the volcano and comet possibilities.

Some believed that a volcano killed the dinosaurs. The idea is that when a volcano erupted, it caused a lot of dust and rubble to stir up and block the sun, therefore not giving the plants and vegetation some dinosaurs need to live on. When it erupted, the lava was presumed to burn some dinosaurs right away and disturbing the whole ecological food web.

The even more popular hypothesis is the comet idea. Some scientists believe that a GIANT comet crashed to earth causing a large amount of dust and debris to fly up blocking the sun so plants couldn t grow. Since large herbivores need an ample supply of plants to survive, they will die off first. Without large herbivores as a source of food, the giant carnivores would die soon after. The comet itself would crush many dinosaurs. Only small animals and insects would have lived through this disaster.

The ideas above are just some of the many theories scientists, archaeologists and other people such as ourselves have come up with. But we really don t know the real reason why these mammoth creatures have perished. Now we only have their fossils to show that these thunder lizards did exist at all. They are displayed throughout museums where we can gaze in awe as we ponder over their mysterious past.

To show these concepts, I have made a diorama that is split into three parts: the volcano, the comet and what is left of them today. To create this display, I first made the volcano. First I made the frame of the volcano which I covered with foil. Then I covered that with paper mache and painted it. The comet I made by crumpling up paper and wrapping it loose with brown dyed tissue paper. I filled the tissue paper with baking powder to create dust when the comet hit. The museum I made by buying a make it yourself wooden model of a dinosaur. I went to the hobby shop and bought little dinosaur and human figurines to place around in my display.