Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

Topic Questions

Chapter 15 1. What do the words regression, detritus, iridium anomaly, shocked quartz, microtektites, Chicxulub, ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, ammonites, mosasaurs, foraminifera, planktonic, and benthic refer to? Regression Withdrawal of sea from land. Detritus Material that is shed from terrestrial settings into aquatic or marine environments. Iridium anomaly Any unusual increase in the concentration of the metal iridium. In this case, it refers to the increased concentration of iridium at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary. Ichthyosaurs Marine diapsids with pectoral, pelvic, and tail fins whose morphology was remarkably similar to that of a dolphin. These animals first appeared in the Triassic, and lived until sometime during the mid-Cretaceous (See Figure 15.9a). Plesiosaurs Long-necked marine diapsids with a kind of Loch Ness morphology (Figure 15.9c). Ammonites Shelled, marine cephalopod molluscs related to the living chambered Nautilus, octopi, and squids. These were common marine predators for more than 300 million years (Figure 15.9d). Mosasaurs Marine-adapted varanid lizards, related to living goannas and the Komodo dragon, that were typical inhabitants of marine shallow shelves during the Late Cretaceous (Figure 15.9b). Foraminifera Single-celled marine microorganisms. Some, living in the water column, are called planktonic, and others, living in the sediment at the bottom of the ocean, are called benthic (see Figure15.10). 2. What are primary production and disaster faunas? Primary production Primary production is the most basic source of organically derived (e.g., produced by the metabolism of living creatures) biomolecules. One might think of primary production as the most basal source of energy in food chains. Primary producers generally metabolize using the sun (photosynthesis), or perhaps the oxidation of various chemicals as the ultimate source of their energy. In the former situation, they would be characterized as autotrophic, whereas, in the latter, they would be characterized as chemotrophic. Disaster faunas Disaster faunas (or biotas) is a term to describe the earliest colonizers of unstable landscapes, or landscapes that have undergone disruption. Such biotas tend to be small,
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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

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not terribly specialized (in terms of behavior or food preference), and maintain high rates of speciation. Among plants, disaster floras precede stable plant communities such as forests. Among animals, disaster faunas precede more stable faunas, which would normally contain a variety of specialized carnivores, herbivores, detritivores, insectivores, and piscivores, all of different sizes and occupying different ecological niches. 3. What is meant by nutrient cycling? Why is that important? Nutrient cycling refers, in the marine realm, to the transfer of nutrients from the photic zone, in which photosynthesis-based primary production can take place, to the benthic zone, which cannot be accessed by sunlight and in which photosynthesis cannot take place. Disruption of these nutrient cycles suggests an ocean that is fundamentally out of equilibrium. 4. What is the K/T boundary? When was it? The K/T (CretaceousTertiary) boundary is the point in time that separates the Cretaceous and Tertiary Periods, as well as the Mesozoic from the Cenozoic Eras. It is associated with one of the five largest mass extinction events of all time the K/T mass extinction and witnessed the disappearance of all nonavian dinosaurs from Earth. Our best estimates of its age as of this writing suggest that it took place 65.5 million years ago. 5. What kinds of physical events took place at the K/T boundary? The Earth is never static, and the years before and after the K/T boundary are no exception. There were episodes of mountain-building in North America and Asia, there was a massive outpouring of flood basalts in India, and sea levels dropped to their lowest in the Cretaceous Period just before its end (as the Cretaceous turned to the Tertiary, they had begun to rise again). The greenhouse Earth of the mid-Cretaceous seems to have modulated some what towards more seasonality. And finally, the end of the Cretaceous was marked by the impact of an asteroid, estimated to be 10 km in diameter, into the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. 6. Describe the biotic extinctions that took place at the K/T boundary. What we know of the biotic extinctions suggests devastation not within our own experience. Among land plants, there was an 80 +% extinction of plants (estimated by the preservation of leaves) and a significant and extinction recognizable by pollen. A major insect extinction has been reconstructed,
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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

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based upon the bite marks preserved in plant leaves! Among fish, the extent of the extinction is largely unknown, but among amphibians and amphibious creatures such as crocodiles and turtles, extinction was not particularly significant. This contrasts markedly with the magnitude of the extinction among terrestrial tetrapods dinosaurs and mammals in which all dinosaurs went extinct, many, but obviously not all, birds went extinct (including all those with teeth), and many mammals (again, obviously not all) went extinct. In the marine realm, the extinction was equally impressive. The great nutrient cycles that characterized the Cretaceous oceans were disrupted, and there were major extinctions of planktonic microorganisms. Among invertebrates, bivalves, brachiopods, coral and, of course, ammonites underwent significant extinctions; ammonites, after 300 + million years on Earth, went completely extinct. The vertebrate record is less clear: little is known about the fossil record of fish across the K/T boundary (although sharks are believed to have undergone a significant extinction), but diapsids like plesiosaurs, and mosasaurs didnt survive the boundary. Marine turtles also underwent a sizeable extinction. Finally, pterosaurs all went extinct at the boundary. Our understanding of what went extinct, what didnt, and how quickly all that took place is hampered by the fact that the terrestrial vertebrate data, in particular, are limited to just a few localities in the western interior of North America. The plant data are not much better, although at least other continents are represented. The record from the marine realm is far better, with many, many localities providing insights into the nature and rate of the extinction. 7. Describe the studies that concluded that the dinosaurs died abruptly. Three field-based studies have been carried out to determine the speed with which dinosaurs went extinct. In each of these three studies, the methods used were similar in some respects, but differed in others. In two studies of the latest Cretaceous North American coastal plain, families and species were tallied through the thickness of the formation that preserved them (the Hell Creek Formation). In the first study1,
1

Sheehan, P.M., Fastovsky, D.E., Hoffmann, R.G., Berghaus, C.B., and Gabriel, D.L., 1991, Sudden extinction of the dinosaurs: family-level patterns of ecological Cambridge University Press, 2009

Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

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the question was then asked, did the proportion of the total fauna occupied by each family change through the thickness of the Hell Creek? Since the answer was determined statistically to be no, the inference was that the community structures remained constant until the very end of the Cretaceous, and that therefore the killing agent had to be something geologically instantaneous. In the second study2 on the Hell Creek coastal plain, the question was asked, at the species level, does diversity change through the thickness of the Hell Creek? Again, the answer was statistically no, and again a geologically instantaneous killing agent was implied. The third study3 was carried out in intermontane basin sediments of the Rocky Mountains. In this study, the diversity of the rich faunas were counted through across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary and well into the earliest Tertiary. Again, no change in diversity was obtained in the Cretaceous part of the section; all the extinctions took place at the boundary. It is significant that each of the three field-based studies designed to address the question of the rate of the dinosaur extinction came independently to exactly the same conclusion: that the extinction was instantaneous. This points to an instantaneous killing agent, such as the asteroid is proposed to have been. 8. What is meant by geologically abrupt when speaking of the extinction of the dinosaurs? Geologically abrupt means within < 200,000 years. In fact, it is almost certainly less than that, but our data do not allow much more precision. We like to note that, even though 200,000 years is a long time on ecological timescales, it rules out classes of potential causes that occur on million-year timescales.
diversity during the latest Cretaceous, upper Great Plains, U.S.A. Science, 254, 835839. 2 Pearson, D.A., Schaefer, T., Johnson, K.R., Nichols, D.J., and Hunter, J.P., 2002, Vertebrate biostratigraphy of the Hell Creek Formation in southwestern North Dakota and northwestern South Dakota, in, Hartman, J., Johnson, K.R., and Nichols, D.J. (eds.), The Hell Creek Formation and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary in the Northern Great Plains: Geological Society of America Special Paper no. 361, pp. 145 167. 3 Lillegraven, J. A. and Eberle, J. J. 1999. Vertebrate faunal changes through Lanican and Puercan time in southern Wyoming. Journal of Paleontology, 73, 691710. Cambridge University Press, 2009

Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

Topic Questions

9. Describe the kinds of physical events that might have occurred when the asteroid hit the Earth? The most recent models suggest a two-step process; a nearinstantaneous infrared pulse caused by the return to the Earth of ejecta and a second, 4-5 month interval of darkness caused by material remaining in the atmosphere. The energy transfer of the impact is thought to have been such that both the asteroid and much of the target would have been instantaneously vaporized. This material would have been injected into the atmosphere, where it would have cooled, and rained back to Earth. The initial infrared pulse is derived from the first rain of the heaviest particles of material returning to Earth after being blasted into space. In theory, heat transfer (in the form of infrared waves) as the particles moved through the atmosphere would have heated the Earths surface to the temperature equivalent of an oven left on broil. It is possible that the footprint of this event was most intense in the region north and east from the asteroid strike (the western interior of North America), but certainly ejecta are thought to have been blown into the Earths atmosphere on a global scale. The heavier pieces of ejecta would have rained out faster; the lighter ones remained suspended longer. The assumption is that, like a volcanic explosion, ash-sized particulates would have remained in the atmosphere for years; however, complete blockage of the sun is thought to have occurred only on months-long timescales. 10. Choose four extinction hypotheses from Table 15.1 and evaluate them in terms of the criteria for a viable scientific theory.
Cause I. Proposed biotic causes A. Medical problems (a) Slipped disks in the vertebral column causing dinosaur debilitation (b) Hormone problems Testable? Potentially Parsimonious? Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

Not testable

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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

(1) Overactive pituitary glands leading to bizarre and non-adaptive growths (2) Hormonal problems leading to eggshells that were too thin, causing them to collapse in on themselves in a gooey mess (c) Decrease in sexual activity Potentially

Topic Questions
Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

Potentially

Not testable

(d) Blindness due to cataracts

Not testable

(e) A variety of diseases, including arthritis, infections, and bone fractures (f ) Biting insects carrying diseases that did dinosaurs in over hundreds of thousands to millions of years (g) Epidemics leaving no trace but wholesale destruction (h) Parasites leaving no trace but wholesale destruction (i) Change in ratio of DNA to cell nucleus causing scrambled genetics (j) General stupidity

Not really testable Not testable, unless diseases left clear record of their existence Not testable

Not testable

Not testable

Not testable

B. Racial senescence

Not testable

C. Biotic interactions (a) Competition with other animals, especially mammals, which may have outcompeted dinosaurs for niches, or perhaps ate their eggs (b) Overpredation by carnosaurs (who presumably ate themselves out of existence)

Not testable

Not testable

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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

(c) Floral changes (1) Loss of marsh vegetation (presumably the single most important source of food)

Topic Questions

(2) Increase in deforestation (leading to loss of dinosaur habitats)

(3) General decrease in the availability of plants for food with subsequent dinosaur starvation

(4) The evolution in plants of substances poisonous to dinosaurs (5) The loss from plants of minerals essential to dinosaur growth II. Proposed physical causes A. Atmospheric causes (a) Climate became too hot, so they fried

Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Testable

Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

Not testable

Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Assuming this idea was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs; but note does not explain marine extinctions Assuming this idea was extended to

(b) Climate became too cold, so they froze

(c) Climate became too wet, so they got waterlogged

(d) Climate became too dry, so they desiccated

Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but

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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Testable

Topic Questions
other organisms besides dinosaurs; but note does not explain marine extinctions Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

(e) Excessive amounts of oxygen in the atmosphere caused:

(1) changes in atmospheric pressure and/or atmospheric composition that proved fatal; or

(2) global wildfires that burned up the dinosaurs (f ) Low levels of CO2 removed the breathing stimulus of endothermic dinosaurs

(g) High levels of CO2 asphyxiated dinosaur embryos

(h) Volcanic emissions (dust, CO2, rare earth elements) poisoned dinosaurs one way or another

CO2 levels are testable, but the response of dinosaurs to these are not testable CO2 levels are testable, but the response of dinosaur embryos to these are not testable Emission levels are testable, but the response of dinosaurs to these are not testable Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not;

Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs

B. Oceanic and geomorphic causes (a) Marine regression produced loss of habitats Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

(b) Swamp and lake habitats were drained

Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from

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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Untestable

Topic Questions
extinction

(c) Stagnant oceans produced untenable conditions on land

Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

(d) Spillover into the worlds oceans of Arctic waters that had formerly been restricted to polar regions, and subsequent climatic cooling

(e) The separation of Antarctica and South America, causing cool waters to enter the worlds oceans from the south, modifying world climates

(f ) Reduced topographical relief and loss of habitats

C. Other (a) Fluctuations in gravitational constants leading to indeterminate ills for the dinosaurs

(b) Shift in the Earths rotational poles leading to indeterminate ills for the dinosaurs

(c) Extraction of the moon from the Pacifi c Basin perturbing dinosaur life as it had been known for 140 million years (!) (d) Poisoning by uranium from Earths soils

Possibly testable but maybe not; does not fit with current data on subject Does not fit with current data on subject Does not fit with current data on subject

Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction

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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

D. Extraterrestrial causes (a) Increasing entropy leading to loss of large life forms

Topic Questions

Untestable

(b) Sunspots modifying climates in some destructive way

Untestable

(c) Cosmic radiation and high levels of ultraviolet radiation causing mutations

Untestable

(d) Destruction of the ozone layer, causing (c)

Untestable

(e) Ionizing radiation as in (c)

Untestable

(f ) Electromagnetic radiation and cosmic rays from the explosion of a supernova

Does not fit with current data

(g) Interstellar dust cloud

Does not fit with current data

(h) Oscillations about the galactic plane leading to indeterminate ills for the dinosaurs (i) Impact of an asteroid (for mechanisms, see the text)

Untestable

Testable; but here the test is the rapidity with which dinosaurs went extinct, rather than a test of the actual mechanism,

Potentially parsimonious, but many small life forms went extinct, too. Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs Non-parsimonious because does not explain all data from extinction Parsimonious assuming killing mechanism was extended to other organisms besides dinosaurs

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Dinosaurs: A Concise Natural History

itself.

Topic Questions

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