Where did all the Dinosaurs go? - The Story

 

Hey friends! Yup, you're our friends, kids! Welcome back to KidsCast! Today, we're here to find the answer to a very interesting question! Have you ever wondered why we had so many dinosaurs living on our earth, then what exactly happened? Where did they all go? And if they died, then how? What caused them to die or disappear? And why are they not alive today? Let's begin with this article, and we'll get the answers to all these questions! 

The time of Dinosaurs:

Before we go into the depth of what caused dinosaurs to disappear or die, it would be great to know the time of dinosaurs, or when they existed. Now, what is the meaning of Exist? Exist means to live or survive at a particular time, in reality.

So, dinosaurs lived on the earth, in this same world, many millions of years ago. The time when dinosaurs lived or basically that particular era is known as the Mesozoic Era. This era was present 252-66 million years ago. This was the age of dinosaurs, also known as 'The Age of Reptiles'. Yes, dinosaurs were actually huge reptiles, which were large in size, and dominated the world in the Mesozoic Era. 

They were large, tall, long, and dangerous! Some dinosaurs got their food from other animals, while some dinosaurs ate plants, shrubs and trees. These dinosaurs lived in all the continents, however, at that time, most continents were close to each other, as they were drifting apart slowly after the Pangaea was broken and continents were formed. Check out our Pangaea Article to know more about Pangaea, when the world was just one continent. 

Moving ahead, the world was full of dinosaurs. The Mesozoic Era was also further divided into three time periods: The Triassic Period, the Jurassic Period and the Cretaceous Period. In these three different Mesozoic periods, different kinds of dinosaurs used to live. However, the dinosaurs' world kept on growing more and more, as years passed. 

How long did the dinosaurs live? 

Wow! Just imagine the dinosaurs jumping and running and simply living on the earth happily! They were indeed wonderful creatures! No wonder they were dangerous or superior. However, they were not capable like us, humans. Of course, they didn't make cities, villages or any inventions. They simply survived and lived, and didn't do anything else. They were not intelligent. 

Anyways, the dinosaurs lived for around 165 million years. But hey, just notice this. It's a fun fact, that the dinosaurs lived on earth longer than humans have ever lived till now. Dinosaurs have lived for 165 MILLION years, whereas we, humans have only lived for just around 200,000 years. So they have lived on earth longer than us! 

So, the dinosaurs pretty much lived on the earth for millions of years. But then, what happened? Where did they go? And if they were so powerful and superior creatures, where did they go? And if they died, how did that happen worldwide? How did all the dinosaurs in the world died, that no one is alive now? 

The Chicxulub Asteroid: 

There was an asteroid named the Chicxulub Asteroid, which changed the story of dinosaurs. An asteroid is a small rocky celestial object orbiting the sun, present in large amounts in the Solar System. So, Chicxulub was this very very huge rock you can say, or an asteroid in real, which was about 11-81 kilometres (6.8-50.3 miles ) in diameter. 

Below is a comparison, of how big was the Chicxulub asteroid compared to things we know like the Burj Khalifa (The tallest building in the world, in Dubai), Mount Everest (the tallest mountain in the world), and the height of where normal planes fly: 

The Impact: 

So something strange happened at the last of the last dinosaur period- The Cretaceous Period. The Chicxulub asteroid in space started to move towards the earth. For weeks and months, it was seen in the sky. First, it looked like a star in the night sky. As slowly-slowly it was coming towards the earth. Then, week by week, that night star started to become bigger and bigger. And soon after many weeks, it became so much visible that it just looked like another sun during the day.

Then one day, the asteroid came burning towards the earth. It was about to collide with the earth. It entered the earth's atmosphere, fire started to burn all around it, and soon after, it hit and collided with the Earth. The Massive explosion of Chicxulub occurred. It burned everything to ashes. It was simply like hundreds of nuclear bombs were exploding at the same time. That asteroid ended everything. 

So many natural disasters started to occur. For a moment, there was an earthquake all over the earth. Tsunamis occurred, volcanic eruptions took place and disasters happened everywhere. After the collision, all the debris (debris is the remains or broken pieces of something) of the collided asteroid was released into the atmosphere. There was a worldwide temperature drop, and many parts of the world went underwater. 75% of all the life on earth had become extinct and got over. Slowly, after the effects of the collision, all the dinosaurs began to die, because of the disasters, volcanic eruptions and the temperature drop. In fact, even most of the plant life was destroyed. 

The change in the climate, the change of the era, and the collision of Chicxulub with the earth caused the dinosaurs to die and become extinct. Very less dinosaurs survived, but they too became extinct with time, because other species had died out. At last, the new earth kept on developing. A new form of life was born, and finally we, humans came into existence! The new beginning started at the end of the olden era! And a new form and type of life began! 

So, kids, this was the story of where did the dinosaurs go, or how did they become extinct. We actually know that it is quite a sad story. However, there's a saying known as: "The previous era has to be over, so a new era can be born!" Anyways apart from the story, we hoped you liked this article and it was informative. We thank you for all the support and love you give us! See you soon! Till then, Happy Learning!