| in Amazing Facts On Animals
The Extinction of Dinosaurs Didn't Happen All at Once
When the meteor hit the Yucatán Peninsula 65 million years ago, it didn't create a massive blaze that instantaneously annihilated all of the dinosaurs, as well as pterosaurs and marine reptiles. Rather, the extinction process went on for hundreds, if not thousands, of years as global temperatures plummeted, sunlight became scarce, and the accompanying lack of vegetation drastically disrupted the food chain from the bottom up. Some isolated dinosaur populations, isolated in remote parts of the earth, may have lasted slightly longer than their kin, but they are undoubtedly extinct now.