In humans, mammals and many other animals, sex is based on chromosomes. I found this little trivia fascinating:
"In crocodilians, turtles and some fish, the temperature at which eggs are incubated can affect the sex of the developing babies. "
So the theory is that the temperature change caused by meteor impacts raised the earth’s temperature causing dinosaurs to hatch more males than females. Without enough females… extinction.
There are so many dueling theories on this extinction. I believe that it may have been a combination of many things. I heard Dr. Jack Horner, a leading paleontologist in the US, speak last year about his research. He suggests that the dinosaurs were already well on their way to a slow extinction when the bolide impact pretty much just helped them along.
Do you really believe that they simply ran out of females EXACTLY 65million yeas ago???? I simply find the bolide impact theory a bit easier to swallow. However, given that the temperature changes were worldwide and that not every species would have been directly affeted by the initial impact, that does lend some credibility to a very puzzling event at the K-T boundary.
Wow - talk about coincidence... shortly after I posted earlier, I was reading some homework from our geology professor.
The homework article stated that geologists have drilled and taken a core sample from the impact site of the asteroid which hit in the Yucatan Peninsula - the one which was always blamed for causing all of the destruction. Turns out, the date of the rocks changed by the impact is not even in the Cretaceous Period. Just thought I'd throw that out there. :)