By Guy Cramer

The idea occurred as quickly as the Asteroid Impact 65 million years ago. The very traits that allowed the dinosaurs to be the dominant creatures for millions of years; size, height, weight, many with long necks, bipedal stance or four legs with high center of gravity, all contributed to provide one weakness that could eliminate all dinosaur species in one generation and provide some mammals, birds, reptiles and amphibians the advantage of a low profile.

K/T Impact: 65 million years ago

In the blink of an eye an Asteroid from space measuring 10 to 20 kilometers (6 to 12 miles) in diameter struck the Yucatan Peninsula. The K/T impact, as it is now referred to, resulted in 100 million megatons of energy to be released in dust, water vapour, fire, shock waves, sound, and tidal waves as well as excavating a crater over 200 kilometres across.

93% of marine reptiles and 56% of land-based reptiles became extinct, however, non-avian (non-bird) dinosaurs and pterosaurs had 100% extinction from this event.

On land nothing bigger than 25 Kilograms survived. Survivors included; Snakes, Small Lizards, Crocodiles, Turtles, Salamanders, Frogs, Mammals and Birds.  

Tunguska Impact Event: 1908

In 1908 in a remote region of western Siberia known as Tunguska, an object about 60 meters in diameter completely disintegrated before hitting the ground releasing an estimated energy of 15 megatons. It broke windows and knocked people to the ground 37 miles (60 kilometers) away in the sparsely populated area. A fiery cloud was seen up to a distance of 300 miles (500 kilometers), where witnesses reported hearing "deafening bangs." All the trees were flattened in an area 50 kilometers across. The sound of the explosion was heard over 5000 kilometers away in London.

1908 Tunguska  Impact= 15 megatons: Deafening bangs 500 Kilometers away

K/T Impact = 100,000,000 Megatons: Sound?

Computers have run the K/T impact scenario many times for debris, fire, tidal wave calculations, however, little is mentioned about the sound of this event.

Hyper-Sound

Given that injury to the inner ear can result in vertigo and loss of balance within mammals, were dinosaurs balance mechanisms shattered from the hyper-sound produced by the K/T Impact that traveled all over the globe? Sound causing deafness may not account for the extreme extinction among dinosaurs. Damaging the semicircular canals of the inner ears may cause balance problems for all dinosaurs, which may eliminate or deter the ability to stand, walk, run, swim, or mate. 

Lets review what survived on land after the K/T Impact; small lizards, snakes, crocodiles, turtles, Frogs, Salamanders, Mammals and Birds, all under 25 KG.

These animals and reptiles that survived have a common trait, all have a low center of gravity, if balance is lost, they would still be able to move on the ground and forage for food, mating may be slightly more difficult but again a low center of gravity would be beneficial in reptiles and amphibians that lost their balance.

While mammals may also fall into this category with a low center of gravity the same may not apply to all the bird species that survived the K/T impact event. There are specific differences between Dinosaur ears, Mammal ears and Bird ears, although birds and mammals share many characteristics of the ear, the Dinosaur ears may have been much more susceptible to damage from the K/T impact sound, while the differences of mammals and birds or bird like dinosaurs may have allowed them to cope with the damage.

Sound travels much better in water, with far less dissipation than sound in air. This would explain the ocean dwelling dinosaurs demise as balance within water becomes more difficult with an up and down to deal with (x-y-z axix; Length-Width-Depth) and may also account for the high percentage (93%) of marine reptiles that went extinct. Increased water pressure from the impact may also have had a similar effect on balance mechanisms.

Fish may have also sustained damage to the ears that would have wiped out most except for bottom dwellers. 

Hyper-Pressure

I also wonder if the immediate air pressure increase of the large 10-20 km diameter asteroid entering the atmosphere within one second immediately changed the global air pressure shattering the balance mechanisms of dinosaurs, reptiles, fish, birds, amphibians and mammals. Could the elasticity of the atmosphere cope with this immediate increase of a solid mass?

This solid mass, within a couple of seconds, crashed into the crust and ejected many times more volume than the initial 10-20 km object back into the atmosphere. Again the resulting increase of volume within the atmosphere increases the pressure. The resulting quick changes in pressure and/or the associated hyper-sound may have destroyed the inner ear of all creatures alive at the time. Or these events only destroyed the more fragile inner ears or balance mechanisms of all creatures except for mammals and birds, which had developed differences within the ear to cope with the changes or damage to the ear.

Super Quakes

Revelation 16:18 (NKJV) …and there was a great earthquake, such as was not since men were upon the earth, so mighty an earthquake, and so great.

If we take the Bible literally, this passage seems to indicate that there were greater earthquakes prior to humans. The K/T impact would have resulted in Global earthquakes with ground waves 10 meters high. This would have been somewhere between 10 and 12.8 on the Richter scale.  Each increase of one on the scale is an order of magnitude greater or ten times as powerful. 20 minutes after the K/T impact, an earthquake began on the opposite side of the planet, triggered by the impact, that lasted for one hour.      

The dinosaurs high center of gravity would also be a detriment in earthquakes of this magnitude, possibly breaking the legs of those dinosaurs that could not lay down, causing some of the other giants of this dinosaur era to fall over, unable to get up after the earthquakes. Although the damage to dinosaur species from earthquakes of this magnitude may be extensive, many of the dinosaurs should have been able to get up again, leading me to believe that the balance organs had been damaged beyond repair from the initial sound and/or pressure of the K/T impact.

Many theories about the mass extinction involved with the K/T event have a number of holes. It is now been determined by one group of scientist that computer models of the K/T impact conclude that the resulting dust in the atmosphere doesn’t amount to enough to stop photosynthesis, which was initially the leading theory for the mass extinction. How do you account for a complete extinction of all dinosaurs while a number of non-dinosaur species under 25kg survived? The fact that mammals came through relatively unscathed, that other creatures such as turtles, snakes, crocodiles, small lizards, frogs and salamanders survived has never been adequately explained with past theories.

New Theory, Fewer Holes

This theory that the K/T Impact Hyper-Sound and/or Hyper-Pressure changes destroying the ability for creatures to balance, explains why low profile, low center of gravity creatures were able to cope, continue through that generation where the damage had been done and mating within those creatures could still be accomplished even with damage to the balance system so only these creatures could continue to the next generation after the impact. 

To confirm this theory, I expect supercomputers will have to look at the K/T impact event and calculate the pressure and sound associated with the event and then work with biologists, palaeontologists, and other specialists… to determine if loss of equilibrium could have been the cause for the dinosaur extinction. 

Had a similar impact event occurred 100,000 years ago, it is doubtful if early man could have survived the loss of balance for one whole generation.

It could happen Again

Recently the media has informed the public of a few close calls with medium sized asteroids. Could a future large asteroid impact, similar to that of the K/T impact, destroy human balance for a generation? If this K/T Impact Equals Loss of Balance theory is correct, the casualty rate with humans under similar impact conditions may be many times higher than the experts have currently calculated. Our bipedal advantage, like many of the dinosaurs, would be a disadvantage in this case. Although our intelligence and abilities to change for a generation to deal with a loss of balance should allow for humans to continue through what would be an E.L.E. (Extinction Level Event) with a less intelligent animal or creature with similar standing, walking, running structure.

Intelligent Life on Other Worlds and Impacts

When considering the possibility for life to exist elsewhere in the universe, it should be taken into account that impacts similar to the K/T may not have favored the most intelligent but the low profile, bigger doesn't always mean better. For an intelligent species to develop to the stage where space travel and communications over distance becomes possible, a sufficient time span between impacts may be required while at the same time periodic impacts may be required to terminate a dominant species such as the dinosaurs, which may hinder the development of smaller more intelligent species.

This material is Copyright © 2002, by Guy Cramer, All Rights Reserved.
This material cannot be reproduced in any form without the expressed written permission of the Author. Whole Copies may be printed for personal use; no changes are to be made to the content, names or references.

Rise of Dinosaurs Tied to Cosmic Collision & Mass Extinction
http://pw2.netcom.com/~speaker6/collision.htm 

Did Impact Dust Cause the KT Mass Extinction?
http://impact.arc.nasa.gov/

YB5 Arouses Public Interest and Concern
http://web99.arc.nasa.gov/impact/news_detail.cfm?ID=107

FAQs About NEO Impacts
http://web99.arc.nasa.gov/impact/intro_faq.cfm  
 
Chicxulub, Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico
http://www.hawastsoc.org/solar/cap/earth/chicxulb.htm

How an asteroid impact causes extinction
http://explorezone.com/columns/space/1999/october_extinctions.htm

Apocalypse in Chicxulub
http://www.nua-tech.com/paddy/sinkswim.shtml#dinosaurs

Lecture 12 - The Lias, Newark, Glen Canyon, and Stormberg Assemblages - Mass Extinction in the Beginning of the Age of Dinosaurs
http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/courses/v1001/12.html

Scientists synthesize dinosaur sound 
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/128111.asp  
 
BBC Walking with Dinosaurs TV series
http://www.bbc.co.uk/dinosaurs/tv_series/chat_trans_bigal_opinions.shtml  
 
Lecture 11 Great Triassic Assemblages Pt 2 - The Keuper and Fleming Fjord Formation
http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/courses/v1001/11.html  

Lecture 23 - The Impact Theory of Mass Extinction
http://rainbow.ldeo.columbia.edu/courses/v1001/23.html

 
WHAT IS THE TEMPORAL BONE? Balance Disorders
http://www.tbregistry.org/body/tempbone.htm

Sounds of Silence
http://www.discover.com/cover_story/vital4.html

Evidence of Evolutionary Transitions mammalian hearing structure, which evolved from reptilian jawbones
http://www.actionbioscience.org/evolution/benton2.html

Meteors, Meteorites and Impacts 
http://seds.lpl.arizona.edu/nineplanets/nineplanets/meteorites.html  
 
What Killed The Dinosaurs? 
http://www.ucmp.berkeley.edu/diapsids/extinction.html  
 
A CATASTROPHE WITH AN IMPACT 
http://www.grisda.org/origins/17038.htm
 
Re: impacts are cool!
http://www.cmnh.org/fun/dinosaur-archive/1997Oct/msg00795.html