The dinosaurs did not fade in front of the asteroid – we only absorb to find their fossils

Diversity is essential in one of the biggest questions that fossil scientists have about dinosaurs. Which, were these old creatures already in a decrease when this fateful asteroid came out of the sky? A group of Earth scientists believe that they may not have been.

Although it is correct that the excavations from the era of final dinosaurs are relatively rare compared to those that came before, it seems that the fossil record may not tell the entire story. The point may seem discussed: in one way or another, dead dead, and this mass death occurred more than 66 million years ago. But among the excavation scholars, it is a warm issue.

For decades, scientists argued for and against the idea that the rates of extinction between dinosaurs were accelerating at the end of their rule. Those who believe that dinosaurs were diminishing claim These new species appeared with less frequency compared to previous ages. Some of the correspondents presented certificate The proposal of a changing climate was partially responsible, as was the appearance of Hydrusor who proved that it was better to compete for food than other herbs. But these are on the other side Believe Their colleagues are not simply looking hard to get signs that the dinosaurs remained in the end as it was in the millions of years that preceded it.

The latest shot in the continuous battle comes from cooperation from scientists from the United States, the United Kingdom and China. Their argument, which they are to make In the current Biology Journaland It is that although there is a decrease in the number of fossils of 9 million years of dinosaurs, this is the issue of geology and a variable planet more than a sign that dinosaurs were actually in the decline.

To make their point of view, Earth scientists looked at dinosaurs from North America, which dates back to the last 18 million years of dinosaurs, a period between 84 and 66 million years. Especially focus on the dinosaurs belonging to the families of Ankylosauridae, Ceratopsidae, Hadrosauridae and Tyrannosauridae. They chose excavations in North America in particular because approximately 50 % of all the excavations discovered from that era were found in North America, especially in the Western internal basin (WIB), where an ancient water body divided the continent in half. The team wrote that WIB “represents an unprecedented data set for distinctive patterns” in the development of dinosaurs.

After creating a map of North America as it would have appeared at the time, including geology, geography and climate, they divided it into networks. Then they used the common mathematical formulas in studies on modern biological diversity to calculate the possibility that each of these families will live in different networks over time. The results showed that the population levels would have been somewhat stable over time.

To find an explanation of the contradiction between this conclusion and the fossil record, they conducted another test, this time to determine whether the areas where the dinosaurs would flourish will also flourish to the excavations that are discovered, as the terrain changed dramatically at that time since the dinos wandered. They looked at factors such as the amount of open rocks in these areas today, the amount of space that cannot be reached for humans, and the number of times that fossil scientists disturbed looking at a specific area.

According to their accounts, the dinosaurs did not decrease, but the risk of finding evidence for it.

Chris Din, a research science fellow at the University of College College, who led the research, said in A. statement. “This indicates that we cannot take the fossil record with the nominal value. Half of the excavations that we have from this time were found in North America. The results we have reached indicate that in this region at least, the dinosaurs may have been better than it was in the past in the period that previously preceded the effect of asteroids, which is likely to be with a diversity of higher species than what we see in the raw rock record.”

While the search is convincing, it is possible that it is not a smoking rifle. If there is nothing else, it may refer to new areas to explore to seek to understand the full size of the history of dinosaurs. It should be interesting to see what is thrown into this intimate fight.