Talk:Controversies in Science/What killed the dinosaurs/A critique of Volcanoes and extinctions: Round Two

This seems like a plausible explanation as to why the dinosaurs became extinct. If one can believe that a plume of dust from a meteorite could be large enough to cover the earth long enough to stop photosynthesis, killing phytoplankton and ultimately the dinosaurs why could it not be possible for enough poisonous gas from a large volcanic eruption spread across the earth and kill the dinosaurs.Jhill171 (talk) 03:11, 4 April 2012 (UTC)

It is hard to assert that volcanoes caused the extinction. It is possible that an asteroid aerosolized the ground causing atmospheric cover that would have stayed suspended for a long period of time. As well an asteroid could have emitted an infrared burst causing a global wildfires that would have destroyed vegetation causing those who could not take shelter to die off rapidly, leaving the scavengers to survive. The fossil record appears to support a rapid die off, consistent with this scenario, where a volcanic cause of climate change would probably be more gradual and does not appear to be consistent with the geologic and fossil records. Ixby, Not what you expect. (talk) 00:25, 11 April 2012 (UTC) Weisburd, S. (1987),”Volcanoes and extinctions: Round Two”. Volcanoes and extinctions: Round Two. Science News, 131(16), 248-250.

If this were in fact the case then we would not be seeing proof of dinosaurs in todays modern bird species and reptiles. Tlouc287 (talk) 17:32, 13 April 2012 (UTC)