The most popular theory has been that a huge asteroid collided with earth. Another theory, which I was not aware of, involved a series of super-volcanoes that occurred in the area of what is now India. The group decided "once and for all" that the asteroid theory was correct. Their findings are published in a recent issue of Science.
The impact was unimaginable - "a billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima." But it was the after-effects that killed off the dinosaurs: wide-spread fires, earthquakes, massive landslides, tsunamis and a dust-cloud that caused a prolonged period of darkness.
However, the most important consequence of this awesome impact was not mentioned in the article. It's this: once all the dinosaurs were gone, the mammals that survived had the freedom to flourish. In the absence of their former predators, over millions of years many new species of mammals evolved, including modern-day human beings.
Let me state this another way. Because of the asteroid, intelligent life evolved on planet Earth. If the asteroid had missed, life on Earth today would be much different. I'm not saying worse - or better. Almost certainly, there would be no human species.
So, when theoretical astrophysicists speculate about intelligent life on earth-like planets orbiting around distant stars and when they calculate the probability of intelligent life existing there, they need to factor in things like chance collisions with giant asteroids, planetoids or comets.
But the KT extinctions asteroid wasn't the most important collision in Earth history that permitted human life to evolve. It was a collision hundreds of times more awesome. More about that event in tomorrow's post...
Post by Dennis E. Coates, Ph.D., , Copyright 2010. Building Personal Strength .
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3 comments:
Love your posts! Big fan and retweeter. Ludicrous to believe this post. Life is less than 7,000 years old. We have an ACCURATE recording of history in the Bible. The flood, mentioned in many cultures is the disaster for which you are looking.
Love your posts! Big fan and retweeter. Ludicrous to believe this post. Life is less than 7,000 years old. We have an ACCURATE recording of history in the Bible. The flood, mentioned in many cultures is the disaster for which you are looking.
When Denny Coates speaks like this, it leaves me wondering if science now hangs on theories than facts, and if where he stands on the facts of creation.
The above theory is just ridiculous! How can one simply conclude that thanks to some giant asteroids that destroyed the preying dinosaurs, mammals were able to evolve until finally we have human beings!
I often wonder, in this light of theirs, why is human being the end of such evolution? Who put the cap there? Hogwash!
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