The Day the Dinosaurs Died

The Article:

I recently read a very interesting article about the day the dinosaurs died and how a paleontologist thinks that he might have found a fossil of a dinosaur dying from when the meteor hit. It’s an article in the New Yorker and is called “The Day the Dinosaurs Died.” Because it’s the weekend, I thought it would be fun to promote an interesting but apolitical article.

Here’s the article if you just want to read it: https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-dinosaurs-died

Summary:

This article, called “The Day the Dinosaurs Died,” has a number of sections. All are quite fun to read. First it goes into the background of the meteor that probably killed the dinosaurs. The author discussed why scientists think it was a meteor, what evidence they have to prove that, and what discoveries have seemed to discredit that.

A main point made is that up until now, no fossils had been found near the soil layer that was created by the meteor. That made scientists think that the dinosaurs had already gone mostly extinct by the time of the meteor. However, this discovery would seem to contradict it, because the fossil was found right at the geologic layer.

After giving some background into the issue, the author describes the discovery and how it was made. He goes into detail to describe the painstaking process the paleontologist had to go to to find this fossil. However, the long days in the sun and dust while being swarmed by mosquitoes payed off- he found an extremely important fossil, and many others in the same spot. It was a “gold mine.”

Finally, the article describes the significance of the find. Because of where it was found in the geologic layer, it could change scientists understanding. The many fossils from that location could better help scientists understand what the late Cretaceous period was like, and the immediate effects of the meteor strike. Finally, it describes how the fossil record found was formed- a vast tsunami- and why that’s important. I’ll let you read to find out.

Analysis:

I loved this article. I thought it was well written and very interesting. Usually I read articles about politics and the stock market, but yesterday I had a bit of time to read something a bit more fun. So I checked out this article and absolutely loved it.

The author does a great job explaining everything. Every time he introduces a new term, he makes sure to explain it. That makes the article as a whole much easier to understand than if he had just used footnotes to describe terms. Furthermore, it was well-researched. Every moment in the process was described accurately and in detail. I really liked that.

Finally, I think this article will appeal to anyone even remotely interested in dinosaurs, history, archaeology, or paleontology. While the subject matter can be a bit dense at times, it usually very interesting. It is also a more fun article than what I usually review on the site, so it’s a fun one for the weekend. I highly suggest you check it out!