If an Asteroid wiped out the Dinosaurs how did Evolution continue?

[max-greece]

Just to add to what Rahul wrote the extinction of the dinosaurs was one of the 5 great extinction events but it wasn't actually the most dramatic. The Permian extinction erased about 90% of all of the species on earth and very nearly wiped life out entirely.

Major extinction events are drivers for evolution. Whole series of niches suddenly become available and survivors tend to evolve at accelerated rates to take advantage of them.

One of the most interesting periods to look at, and one about which we know very little is the aftermath of the dinosaur extinction. Recently a raft of fossils have been found in an open cast mine in South America that dates to 60 million years ago. If you are interested you can find details on Titanoboa (probably the largest snake that ever lived) that comes from that period on Youtube.

Just to add one more thing - it looks like the dinosaurs actually died out remarkably quickly after the meteor impact. It appears that the meteor kicked off a shitstorm of climate change and they (along with a whole host of other species) couldn't survive it. In fact, it appears that nothing bigger than a chicken survived on land. Probably more surprising that the dying off of the dinosaurs was the extinction of the giant marine reptiles. It is not clear why this happened - particularly as the crocs survived and some of those were very large indeed (2 to 3 times bigger than a nile crocodile of today).

[Oliver1990]

Thanks so much for the replies guys.

I really find it fascinating reading your replies and watching documentaries and videos on this subject and Atheism in general. (I know you don't need to be an Atheist to acknowledge Evolution before anyone points it out.)

[The Grand Nudger]

While it affected the dinosaurs, it's most significant impact would have been on the plant life of the time, as plants are broadly speaking, sensitive to the parameters which would have been changed by the impact, and can't change their habits or evolve adaptations to the new conditions as readily.

The flora changes drastically following the KT. Flowering plants did well though- and look how many of them there are now..lol. A notable addition post KT is grass. Imagine a world with no grass......yup. Imagine a world with such open grounds as to facilitate the emergence of grass (and then our later tinkering with the same).

http://www.plantphysiology.org/content/125/3/1198.full

[Anomalocaris]

The flora changes drastically following the KT. .... A notable addition post KT is grass.

Sorry to nit pick, but no. Although earliest fossil of actual grass dates from Eocene - 10 million years after dinosaurs died out, dinosaur dung fossil discovered after the article you cited was published shows grass already formed sa taple of dinosaur diet during cretaceous.

So grass existed along side dinosaurs and dinosaurs did in fact graze like cows.

[orogenicman]

If an Asteroid wiped out the Dinosaurs how did Evolution continue?

I think I'm missing something out as I'm pretty new to reading about Evolution in detail. I've watched a few programs and books and this is how its usually depicted:

Evolution started from Bacteria.

(tires a screeching, the bus comes to a sudden halt). Evolution is not about the origin of life.

Bacteria -> Fish -> Amphibians etc...
Asteroid happens killing the Dinosaurs.
Amphibians continue to Evolve.

All species evolve.

So my question is, if the Asteroid wiped out the Dinosaurs, wouldn't it of wiped out the Amphibians and everything else too?

Well, I'm a geologist, so here is what I think. I think that the asteroid impact theory is overused, and over-blown. I always have felt that way. Yes, an asteroid impacted the Earth. Yes, there were very dire consequences of the impact. The fact of the matter is that the dinosaurs were already in decline, and had been for at least 2 million years. No one can convince me that the Siberian trapps can wipe out some 90% of all life at the Permian-Triassic boundary, but the Deccan trapps can't do something similar at the KT boundary. And in fact, the Deccan trapps are responsible for the long term decline of many species before the impact occurred. Let's just say that the impact was merely the icing on the cake.

As for amphibians, the great thing about them is that they like it cool and damp, and with lots of insects eating off the offal, they likely had it pretty good.

I realise there are other theories such as Volcanos & Ice Aces but wouldn't this have the same effect too?

See above.

I know the majority of Scientists believe it was an Asteroid, but I just struggle to figure out how Evolution continued to happen if everything was wiped out?

Everything wasn't wiped out. It would take significantly more that a five mile diameter rock to sterilize the Earth.

[Anomalocaris]

If an Asteroid wiped out the Dinosaurs how did Evolution continue?

I think I'm missing something out as I'm pretty new to reading about Evolution in detail. I've watched a few programs and books and this is how its usually depicted:

Evolution started from Bacteria.

(tires a screeching, the bus comes to a sudden halt). Evolution is not about the origin of life........

Uhhh, Chuck - that's presumably me - did not write what you quoted.

[orogenicman]

Oops. Sorry, that was meant for Oliver1990. My bad.

[The Grand Nudger]

Last I checked, we found some grass in fossils but didn't expect much to have been eaten, or much to have been "on the ground" so-to-speak" given that the lca of existent grasses (to the order of 90%) can't be pushed back any further than 70mya (as told by the genome-and as compared to the amount of fossilized flora that -isn't- grass). We still have the explosion of grass after kt (and again after our efforts). The effect on the scenery has to be truly considered to be appreciated.

What's changed? Linkety link. Love this stuff.

[Anomalocaris]

Last I checked, we found some grass in fossils but didn't expect much to have been eaten, or much to have been "on the ground" so-to-speak" given that the lca of existent grasses (to the order of 90%) can't be pushed back any further than 70mya (as told by the genome-and as compared to the amount of fossilized flora that -isn't- grass). We still have the explosion of grass after kt (and again after our efforts). The effect on the scenery has to be truly considered to be appreciated.

What's changed? Linkety link. Love this stuff.

http://www.sciencemag.org/content/310/5751/1177.short

Well, it must be pushed back beyond 70 million years, unless you think the cellular morphological features of advanced grass popped into existence fully developed 70 million years without a there having been a long line an ancester grasses before 70 million years ago in which it could develop.

[The Grand Nudger]

Thanks for the link. There's a "long line" for the evolution of everything. I'm not talking about grass ex nihilo, but the appearance of "grass ex nihilo".

We still have the post kt explosion of grass, regardless, eh?