There are many theories about the extinction of dinosaurs. The popular version is the result of an asteroid collision that then burns them down. However, a map of the dinosaur spread seemed to indicate another point. The dispersion path of the dinosaurs proves that the expansion of the dinosaurs in South America was too fast.
This rapid population spreading makes dinosaurs able to dominate and dominate the earth, but limited land also encourages their extinction as it inhibits the ability to produce new species.
The study, published in Nature Ecology and Evolution, attributes a previous study that revealed that dinosaurs declined 50 million years before the asteroid hit.
"The fossil evidence has shown us where the dinosaurs came from and where they died, but there is a noteworthy period of central importance," said Ciara O'Donovan, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading, quoted by Phys.org on Tuesday (6 / 2/2018).
He continued, our research fills the gap by revealing how dinosaurs spread, how fast they moved, and which path they passed all the time.
Fossil evidence suggests that dinosaurs originated from the End of Triassic period (about 230 million years ago) in South America. This area is part of Pangea, the super-wide land that is the forerunner of today's continents.
The population of dinosaurs then exploded and moved around the world. At that time various forms of evolution create new species, such as Tyrannosaurus rex and Archeopteryx (the earliest bird).
However, these periods did not last long. The dinosaurs quickly filled all the places on Earth. "There is no place for the species to move or occupy a new place, which may have hampered the emergence of new species," O'Donovan explained.
Through the dinosaur deployment map, researchers developed a new statistical method to uncover where every ancestor of dinosaur species was, with a three-dimensional simulation.
As a result, the dinosaurs spread uninterruptedly and crossed enormous areas at a speed of 1000 kilometers per million years. Not surprisingly, they easily dominate every terrestrial habitat for 170 million years.
The saturation of the earth causes the dinosaur to become centered in an area, resulting in a fundamental change in evolution. In addition, it also inhibits the development of dinosaurs and makes them vulnerable to future environmental changes, such as those caused by asteroid attacks.
"Like an empty canvas, dinosaurs spread rapidly, almost every door opened because there was no competition from other species," explains Dr. Chris Venditti, another biologist involved in the study.
"The inability of dinosaurs to adapt quickly enough when the Earth is full may explain why they have decreased before the asteroid impact and why they are so vulnerable to extinction when it happens," he concluded.