# why didnt any Dinosaurs survive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [December 28, 2017, 7:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479 "2017-12-28T19:24:49Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 5:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/21 "2017-12-29T17:07:33Z")
> [@DrDeth](#): > > Burrowing birds? I mean, yes there are a few but…😕 Quite a few birds make burrows for nesting. Very few live in them when not nesting, and all have to come out every day to look for food. I don’t think any store food in them like small mammals do. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 5:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/22 "2017-12-29T17:22:32Z")
Something that puzzles me - were there no dinosaurs occupying a similar evolutionary niche as crocodiles? Had the crocodiles already outcompeted all the dinosaurs in shallow water environments? ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 5:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/23 "2017-12-29T17:27:22Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > The Chicxulub impactor set _the entire surface of the earth_ on fire. There’s a worldwide layer of ash at the boundary. Tektites (cooled droplets of molten glass) believed to be from the impact have been found in the ocean on the other side of the world – it threw molten glass completely around the planet. > > In tests, burning vegetation cover presumed comparable to typical Cretaceous flora produced temperatures of 1,500 degrees F at ground level. That would kill every land animal on the surface of the earth. I would think that would kill anything for the survivors to eat. There might have been some worms and burrowing insects. ---
**Author:** ![Sailboat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/sailboat/32/461_2.png) [@Sailboat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sailboat)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 5:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/24 "2017-12-29T17:45:41Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > the gap between us and T-Rex is 20 million years larger than the gap between those two dinosaurs. Errr…other way around. The gap between T-Rex and Stegos is 20 million years larger than the gap between us and T-Rex. It is wrong, but nit-pickingly _closer_ to correct, to show humans living beside T-Rex than to show T-Rex living beside Stegosaurus. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 6:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/25 "2017-12-29T18:23:46Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > Something that puzzles me - were there no dinosaurs occupying a similar evolutionary niche as crocodiles? Which behavior do you mean? Eating fish, or waiting to ambush land animals that are attempting to drink water? The [spinosaurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosaurus) probably were the closest that we know of. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/the_stafford_cripps/32/7167_2.png) [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Stafford_Cripps)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/26 "2017-12-29T18:39:56Z")
Whichever behaviour it was that enabled (some?) crocodiles to survive. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 7:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/27 "2017-12-29T19:01:56Z")
> [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > Whichever behaviour it was that enabled (some?) crocodiles to survive. Even with crocs, [half of the families didn’t survive and no large ones](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_extinction_event#Crocodyliforms). ---
**Author:** ![Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/e8c25b/32.png) [@Really\_Not\_All\_That\_Bright](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Really_Not_All_That_Bright)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 8:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/28 "2017-12-29T20:12:42Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > The Chicxulub impactor set _the entire surface of the earth_ on fire. That’s unlikely. Apart from anything else, while Australia and New Zealand have KT sediment strata, we have yet to find a single plant which went extinct there. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 11:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/29 "2017-12-29T23:06:04Z")
> [@Darren\_Garrison](#): > > Which behavior do you mean? Eating fish, or waiting to ambush land animals that are attempting to drink water? The [spinosaurs](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinosaurus) probably were the closest that we know of. The spinosaurs, however, died out a good 20 million years before the KT event. > [@The\_Stafford\_Cripps](#): > > Whichever behaviour it was that enabled (some?) crocodiles to survive. Dinosaurs may not have evolved to fill the crocodile niche because the crocodiles were already filling it. ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 29, 2017, 11:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/30 "2017-12-29T23:16:26Z")
> [@Colibri](#): > > Dinosaurs may not have evolved to fill the crocodile niche because the crocodiles were already filling it. Perhaps they ate anything that tried. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [December 30, 2017, 8:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/31 "2017-12-30T20:43:05Z")
Some birds might have survived, not by burrowing, but by living in (or just happening to be over at the time) large bodies of water sufficiently far from anything flammable. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 4:13am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/32 "2017-12-31T04:13:07Z")
Mammals also came close to not making it, with [possibly over 90 percent of species going extinct](https://www.theregister.co.uk/2016/06/20/mammals_nearly_wiped_out_in_asteroid_impact/). ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 1:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/33 "2017-12-31T13:27:58Z")
> [@carnivorousplant](#): > > Perhaps they ate anything that tried. The largest Mesozoic crocodiles were in the size range of mid-sized dinosaurs and most likely preyed on ones that got too close to the water. > [@Chronos](#): > > Some birds might have survived, not by burrowing, but by living in (or just happening to be over at the time) large bodies of water sufficiently far from anything flammable. Four lineages of birds appear to have survived the extinction event: ostrich-like birds, or ratites, whose ancestors were probably flying forms at the time; chicken-like birds; ducks; and the ancestors of all other modern birds. It seems the ancestors of the last were mainly marine or aquatic at the time. ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/34 "2017-12-31T13:43:42Z")
Why did the chicken cross the road? The escape the K-T extinction event. ---
**Author:** ![Jonathan\_Chance](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/jonathan_chance/32/701_2.png) [@Jonathan\_Chance](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Jonathan_Chance)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 2:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/35 "2017-12-31T14:02:14Z")
If we’re at this point… Life DIDN’T find a way? ---
**Author:** ![John\_Mace](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_mace/32/185_2.png) [@John\_Mace](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_Mace)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 2:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/36 "2017-12-31T14:21:53Z")
> [@Jonathan\_Chance](#): > > If we’re at this point… > > Life DIDN’T find a way? “Life” created us, and sooner or later we’ll figure out a way to bring them back! 🙂 In truth, there is no known factual answer to the OP’s question. If someone knows, they should quickly publish their findings in one of the appropriate journals. People in this thread are certainly offering plausible, intelligent explanations, but the truth is that we are just not certain. Due to the difficulty in testing hypothesis, it’s likely that we may never know in the way we “know” other things in science, like why the planets orbit around the sun. ---
**Author:** ![Ruken](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/f475e1/32.png) [@Ruken](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ruken)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 2:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/37 "2017-12-31T14:45:43Z")
> [@Sailboat](#): > > There’s a worldwide layer of ash at the boundary. I would like to see this boundary. I started a thread once asking where to do so. ---
**Author:** ![DSYoungEsq](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/c6cbf5/32.png) [@DSYoungEsq](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DSYoungEsq)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 3:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/38 "2017-12-31T15:05:05Z")
> [@John\_Mace](#): > > like why the planets orbit around the sun. They don’t. They orbit around the Earth, in a very weird fashion. Or, if you prefer, the Sun orbits around each of them at the same time. Need to pick some other hypothesis which can actually be tested. :rolleyes: ---
**Author:** ![carnivorousplant](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/carnivorousplant/32/3563_2.png) [@carnivorousplant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/carnivorousplant)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 3:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/39 "2017-12-31T15:06:14Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > I would like to see this boundary. I started a thread once asking where to do so. [Alberta.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_boundary) ---
**Author:** ![Teuton](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/teuton/32/3864_2.png) [@Teuton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Teuton)\ **Post date:** [December 31, 2017, 3:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479/40 "2017-12-31T15:16:21Z")
> [@Ruken](#): > > I would like to see this boundary. I started a thread once asking where to do so. [This site](https://io9.gizmodo.com/5866710/a-travel-guide-to-prehistoric-places-in-north-america) suggests Raton Basin, in Colorado and New Mexico. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-didnt-any-dinosaurs-survive/805479.md?page=3)