(June 26, 2016 at 1:46 pm)Rhondazvous Wrote: I never understood how all the dinosaurs could be killed by one asteroid unless they hadn't spread out very far. The one's that weren't killed by the asteroid would not have been fossilized. They would have died some other way.
I's really remarkable that we have such a rich fossil record when you consider that most animals don't die in a way that allows their remains to be preserved in tact.
The "nuclear winter" (perpetual overcast and resulting cold weather) from the Chicxulub meteor killed off the plant life. The herbivores died because of that. The carnivores turned scavenger and finally ran out of food themselves. The small critters could find bits of food to sustain them here and there, but complex life was tittering on the abyss for a while.
As for fossils, there may be more than we think. Lee Berger found two sites with numerous hominid fossils, in 2008 and 2014. We're talking thousands of bones. He mentioned that you can find many thousands of antelope fossils in the area (near Johannesburg, South Africa.) So it may not be so remarkable after all. The T. Rex "Sue" was found in a nearly complete state.
