- 5 months ago
Have you ever wondered what actually happened to the massive asteroid after it slammed into Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs? Our latest video dives into the unbelievable geological reality that the Chicxulub impactor didn't just leave a crater—it hit with such unimaginable force that the entire space rock was completely vaporized into superheated plasma! We are breaking down the chaotic aftermath of this catastrophic event, exploring how the pulverized asteroid was blasted high into the atmosphere before settling back down to cover the entire planet. You will learn all about the K-Pg boundary, the thin, globally distributed layer of ancient sediment that proves the physical remains of the dinosaur-killing asteroid are literally buried right beneath our feet. Animation is created by Bright Side.
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Music from TheSoul Sound: https://thesoul-sound.com/
Check our Bright Side podcast on Spotify and leave a positive review! https://open.spotify.com/show/0hUkPxD34jRLrMrJux4VxV
Subscribe to Bright Side: https://goo.gl/rQTJZz
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https://www.eastnews.ru
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For more videos and articles visit: http://www.brightside.me
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This video is made for entertainment purposes. We do not make any warranties about the completeness, safety and reliability. Any action you take upon the information in this video is strictly at your own risk, and we will not be liable for any damages or losses. It is the viewer's responsibility to use judgement, care and precaution if you plan to replicate.
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FunTranscript
00:01Boom! An explosion of supersonic waves, interplanetary heat, dust, fumes.
00:07The Earth's atmosphere has been invaded by a cosmic rock the size of Everest.
00:12A few seconds ago, this rock, weighing trillions of tons, was hurtling towards Earth.
00:17It could fly from New York to Anchorage faster than you could fry yourself an omelette.
00:22This monster's name? The Cheek-She-Loop Incident.
00:25Epic name, right? 66 million years ago, it crashed into the Earth.
00:31Back then, dinosaurs ruled the planet. But not for long.
00:35The epic collision took place in modern Mexico, in the Yucatan Peninsula, right near Cancun,
00:41where the dinosaurs were vacationing. Well, probably not.
00:45Still, the huge space rock hit the ocean, but even all that water couldn't stop the inevitable.
00:51The collision caused a huge amount of energy to be released. The horror on a planetary scale had begun.
00:58Imagine a mini-sun lighting up the surface of the Earth with tsunamis, the height of the Statue of Liberty,
01:05bursting from the epicenter of the watery impact.
01:08Mmm, not good.
01:09The blast blew through the surface of the Earth. It was as hot as an oven and burnt everything in
01:15its path.
01:15The impact provoked a colossal earthquake and serious volcanic activity.
01:20A bunch of volcanoes simultaneously released hot lava and ash into the prehistoric skies.
01:27Millions of tons of ash and soot poisoned the air.
01:30This formed a huge ash cloud in the atmosphere, which blocked out the sun's rays for several years.
01:36The long winter had begun.
01:38Only, there wasn't any snow falling from the sky, but rain made of sulfuric acid.
01:43Yes, the Cheek Shalhoub incident might just be the most important thing that ever happened in the history of our
01:50planet.
01:51Even more than YouTube.
01:53Back then, there were loads of volcanic eruptions, a lot of flammable oxygen in the atmosphere, constant temperature changes.
02:01It was the perfect and worst time for all of this to go down.
02:05So, how are we so sure about all this?
02:08Well, the asteroid left an absolutely huge crater on the planet's surface.
02:13Today, this scar is hidden under the Gulf of Mexico.
02:17Scientists found a lot of places on Earth with abnormally high levels of irradium.
02:22This metal is very rare on Earth, but it's in a lot of asteroids that scientists have examined.
02:29Scientists studied some 66-million-year-old rocks.
02:32In the layers of rock, they found dust, the same dust that comes from asteroids.
02:37But this could only have happened if a huge asteroid had crashed into Earth.
02:42The catastrophe led to the extinction of not only the dinosaurs, but also the asteroid.
02:48It was so hot at the point of impact, part of the asteroid just disappeared.
02:52A lot of water vapor and carbon dioxide shot up into the atmosphere.
02:57But the biggest problem?
02:59Sulfur.
03:00It got kicked up by the asteroid impact and flew up into the air.
03:04These tiny sulfur particles blocked out a lot of the sun's rays.
03:08Without the sun, a lot of plants disappeared, and the climate eventually got colder.
03:13The immense heat turned stones into glass.
03:16Scientists call these things tektites.
03:19The energy of the impact threw them up into the skies.
03:23After a short flight, the tektites fell down to Earth.
03:26But it wasn't pretty.
03:28Rain fell, too.
03:29Only instead of drops of water, you'd have seen hot, glassy fireballs.
03:34They bombarded the planet's surface for days.
03:37The tektites set fire to everything.
03:40Scientists found evidence of this all over the world, not just near the collision site.
03:45But a lot of things from back then are still a mystery.
03:49Some scientists think that Chicxulub wasn't even an asteroid.
03:52It might have been a comet.
03:55Asteroids are mostly made of stone and metal.
03:57Most often, they kind of look like a potato.
04:00A comet contains rock, metal, and ice.
04:04Comets look like dirty cosmic snowflakes, complete with ammonia, methane, and carbon dioxide.
04:10Comets sometimes come from the Oort cloud.
04:13It's a huge cloud of ice and debris around our solar system.
04:16From time to time, comets break free from the pack and head towards our Sun.
04:22According to scientists, this special comet flew right past Jupiter.
04:26The gravity of that huge planet accelerated the comet even more.
04:31It flew towards the Sun, gaining more and more speed.
04:34The comet's outer ice shield started to evaporate.
04:38And it probably gave off a lot of dust and gas, which made it look like it had a tail.
04:43The Sun's gravity eventually shattered the comet apart.
04:47One of the fragments flew through space and crashed into the Earth 66 million years ago.
04:54So, asteroid or comet?
04:56The truth is, we'll never know.
04:58What we do know is that the Earth was seriously unlucky to be in its path.
05:03And it was never the same again.
05:05The catastrophe stopped the development of 75% of life on Earth.
05:10Some bigger marine animals, like crocodiles, turtles, and fish, survived the impact.
05:16Out of all land animals, the only ones to survive were the ones that were, on average, smaller than the
05:22modern raccoon.
05:23That includes a bunch of special species of dinosaurs, the ancient ancestors of birds.
05:30Scientists believe they survived for two reasons.
05:33After the huge impact, it took a long time for plants to start growing again.
05:38And a lot of animals didn't survive.
05:40Most remaining animals didn't have enough food.
05:43But these dinosaurs had a beak.
05:46With its help, they could split open nuts and dig seeds out of the soil.
05:50So, they survived.
05:52The second reason is that these lucky guys had bigger brains.
05:55Some people think that they were able to cooperate with each other and quickly adapt to the new conditions.
06:02Other life forms survived, too.
06:04Fungi and mold survived underground and underwater.
06:08Gradually, the darkness cleared away, and ferns began to take over the lifeless landscape.
06:14After a few thousand years, forests started to reappear.
06:17The animals that survived were pretty much all inconspicuous and small creatures.
06:22They lived in burrows, safe from all that hot ash.
06:26Before the collision, mammals had lived in the shadow of dinosaurs.
06:30But with all the dinosaurs suddenly gone, things were about to change.
06:35Mammals were able to take over.
06:37They began to dominate life, at least on land.
06:40Back to the moment when everything changed.
06:43Turns out, it wasn't the size of the asteroid that made it so powerful.
06:47It was more about the angle in which it hit the Earth.
06:50If the angle of impact had been different, the dinosaurs might have even survived the catastrophe.
06:56So, what would that have looked like?
06:59Well, let's travel back.
07:01Way back!
07:02Oh no!
07:03There's a giant asteroid heading for Earth!
07:06Ah!
07:07Oh, wait!
07:08Never mind!
07:09It missed!
07:10Phew!
07:10There are plenty of earthquakes, tsunamis, and volcanic eruptions every day.
07:15But dinosaurs don't mind that much.
07:18No big deal.
07:20Fast forward a few million years, and most of these ancient lizards have changed and are now unrecognizable.
07:26Thanks to a couple of ice ages, many dinosaurs are now totally covered with feathers to protect them from the
07:32cold.
07:33Mammals exist, but they're few and far between.
07:36You see a lot of bats in caves.
07:39There are tons of rat-sized rodents in the forests.
07:42During the day, they hide in the undergrowth or in burrows.
07:45At night, they go out in search of food.
07:48There are no horses, no elephants, or other large mammals.
07:51Why become large and eatable when there are so many dangerous reptiles with huge fangs around?
07:57There are no whales in the sea.
08:00Parrots, hawks, and pigeons are nowhere to be seen.
08:03But pterodactyls 2.0 whiz past you constantly.
08:08Some are about the size of a helicopter, while others are no larger than a swan.
08:13There are plenty of primates, but they're in no hurry to climb down from their trees and walk on two
08:18legs.
08:19No venturing out into the savanna, no evolution into Homo sapiens.
08:24In this alternate reality, open spaces are very dangerous.
08:28But then again, so are forests and trees.
08:32Nowhere is safe.
08:33To get some delicious primate treats, many smaller dinosaurs learned to climb trees.
08:38This was already happening back in the Cretaceous period, right before that huge asteroid just missed Earth.
08:46Whew!
08:46That would have been an epic collision.
08:49Dinosaurs have grown wiser since that near-miss.
08:51Some are even as smart as a modern chicken.
08:55A large brain uses a lot of energy, and that's not always a good strategy for survival.
09:00Safer to keep brains small and keep making those teeth bigger and pointier.
09:07So, let's consider velociraptors as pets.
09:12Yeah, walking your dino in the park, playing fetch, and we probably could have it now, if it hadn't been
09:18for those pesky asteroids.
09:20To be fair, we ended up with mammals, which, you know, let's face it, it was a pretty solid trade.
09:26But here's the big question.
09:29Why didn't reptiles make a grand comeback?
09:32Why did mammals rise instead?
09:35The answer, believe it or not, involves fungi.
09:39Yep, the same stuff that gives you athlete's foot and ruins your leftovers, also wiped out dinosaurs.
09:46Welcome to the weirdest twist in extinction history.
09:50It all started with a very bad day 66 million years ago, when a 9-mile-wide asteroid crash-landed
09:59in what's now Mexico.
10:00This space rock was moving so fast that it vaporized on impact, punching out a crater 10 times its own
10:07size.
10:08Now, if you remember anything from your physics class, and no judgment if you don't, high speed means high energy.
10:15And that energy turned into a blast wave and heat so intense, it could have cooked anything in the area
10:21instantly.
10:22And it didn't stop there.
10:24Tiny molten rock beads rained down globally, generating radiation equivalent to 20 million megatons.
10:32Forests caught fire, wildfires raged across continents, and the sky filled with soot and sulfuric acid.
10:39Earth turned into a planetary air fryer.
10:42Then came the blackout.
10:45With all that debris in the atmosphere, half of the sunlight couldn't reach the surface,
10:49making sea surface temperature drop by 13 degrees Fahrenheit.
10:54Within just a few weeks, the planet entered a literal impact winter.
10:59There was no sunlight for at least two years, and Earth experienced a 15-year-long climate collapse while the
11:06dust slowly cleared.
11:0875% of all animal species completely disappeared.
11:12Those that survived the initial blast faced tsunamis, starvation, and the collapse of entire food chains.
11:19If you were a big animal, say over 55 pounds, your chances were basically zero.
11:26And if you were a plant, forget about it.
11:28No sunlight means no photosynthesis.
11:31And that means no plankton, no trees, no grass, and eventually no herbivores, which means no carnivores either.
11:39It was a domino effect straight into extinction.
11:43The Earth became a cold, dark graveyard.
11:46But there was one organism that looked around and said, yeah, this is perfect.
11:52And it was fungi.
11:54Now, fungi thrive in moist, dark, and decaying environments.
11:58You know, like a world blanketed in ash full of dead trees and rotting animals.
12:03With no sunlight and plummeting temperatures, fungi had a once-in-a-lifetime chance to take over.
12:09And they did.
12:11Fossil records show widespread fungal contamination in the period after the impact.
12:16It was a global fungal bloom, like the moldy icing on an apocalyptic cake.
12:22Now, this was great news for fungi, but terrible news for reptiles.
12:27See, fungi aren't just harmless mushrooms.
12:30Many are pathogens, and they love cold-blooded creatures.
12:34Reptiles, including some of the dinosaurs that survived, were ectothermic.
12:38This means that they relied on external heat sources to warm their bodies.
12:43In a normal situation, a nice sunny rock would do the trick.
12:46Bask in the sun, raise your internal temperature, and fight off infections.
12:52It's like an induced fever.
12:54Because, unlike mammals, like me, their bodies don't do it for them.
12:58And yes, I'm a mammal too.
13:00But, uh, there was no sun, remember?
13:03And a cold reptile is a sluggish reptile.
13:06Their metabolism slows down, which might sound like a good thing,
13:10because it means they can survive on less food and oxygen.
13:13But in this new, hostile world, it was a disaster.
13:17They had less energy to move, less energy to hunt, and couldn't even digest food properly.
13:23Their bodies were colder, weaker, and easier for fungi to invade.
13:28Reptile reproduction was hit hard, too.
13:31Most reptiles lay eggs, which are usually buried in the soil or left in hidden nests.
13:37But with the soil now damp, cold, and riddled with fungal spores,
13:42those eggs became easy targets.
13:44Spores penetrated the thin eggshells, destroying the embryos before they could hatch.
13:50So not only were adult reptiles struggling to fight infections,
13:54but their future generations were being wiped out in the nest.
13:58This vulnerability isn't just ancient history.
14:00We still see reptiles and amphibians struggling with fungi today.
14:05There's a type of fungi – hey, you try to pronounce this – that decimated frog populations.
14:11And reptiles in colder or poorly maintained environments have to deal with fungal skin infections.
14:18Which brings us to the protagonists of the era – mammals.
14:22At the time of the impact, mammals were tiny, scrappy creatures about the size of a rat.
14:27But they had a secret weapon – actually several.
14:31First off, mammals are warm-blooded, something scientists call endothermic.
14:37They produce their own body heat.
14:39And that alone gives them a major edge.
14:41Because most fungi can't tolerate temperatures above 98.6 Fahrenheit.
14:46So while reptiles were freezing and being turned into fungal buffets,
14:51mammals were literally too hot to handle.
14:54Their warm bodies acted like natural shields against infection.
14:58And then there's reproduction.
15:01Mammals carry their young inside their bodies.
15:03This means that their developing babies were safe and warm,
15:07insulated from the hostile external environment.
15:10Instead of being exposed to the unfriendly world,
15:13protected just by a fragile shell.
15:16No eggs? No problem.
15:18Their metabolism was another secret weapon.
15:21Their fast-burning energy systems let them move more, hunt more, and eat more.
15:27And because they were small, they didn't need a lot of food.
15:30And here's the cool part.
15:33Mammals probably ate fungi.
15:35Yep, the same organisms ruining the lives of reptiles.
15:39And this fungal diet might have helped them boost their immune systems,
15:43giving them an evolutionary edge.
15:46Over generations, this resistance was passed down,
15:49which explains why fungal infections mostly give us an annoying rash,
15:54but still wreaks havoc among reptiles.
15:57Of course, not all dinos were cold-blooded.
16:00In fact, some massive creatures, like the T-Rex, were warm-blooded.
16:04But, warm-blooded or not, their size worked against them.
16:08You know, giants need giant meals.
16:10And in the post-impact world, those meals didn't exist.
16:15Being warm-blooded helps, sure, but not when you're too big to feed.
16:19Small dinosaurs, however, were a different story.
16:22Some survived, and we call them birds.
16:26Their small size meant they were lighter and needed less food.
16:30And their feathers helped with insulation.
16:32Being able to fly was also a flex,
16:35since they could reach food in higher places.
16:38Their beaks and guts were adapted for flexible diets.
16:41And bigger dinos were definitely picky eaters.
16:45Evolution did its thing,
16:47and the line between birds and dinos blurred forever.
16:51The same survival playbook worked for mammals.
16:54Small size? Check.
16:56Safe reproduction? Check.
16:58Versatile diets? Double check.
17:01While the rest of the world was on pause,
17:03mammals scurried through the underbrush,
17:06dodging disaster and waiting for the dust to settle.
17:09And then, it did.
17:11The sun eventually came back.
17:13Plants started growing again.
17:15Life rebooted.
17:17But this time, the stage was different,
17:19with big reptiles mostly gone.
17:22No more towering predators.
17:24No more thundering herds of horned beasts.
17:27Mammals had room to stretch.
17:29And they did.
17:31They grew.
17:32Fast.
17:33But not too fast.
17:35Mammals never got dinosaur-sized.
17:37And that's not a coincidence.
17:40Large herbivores today, like elephants,
17:43have it easy,
17:44since their food doesn't run away from them.
17:46But large predators are rare for a good reason.
17:50Hunting is hard.
17:51Your prey sees you coming,
17:53so you can't be a big, tall dummy running around.
17:57Besides, you need energy to chase,
17:59stamina to fight,
18:01and a metabolism to match.
18:03And you know how that worked out for dinos.
18:05Not to mention,
18:07mammal bones aren't built like dinosaur bones.
18:10The latter had hollow structures,
18:12even air sacs,
18:13to support their size.
18:14But if you stack too much weight on a mammal's bone,
18:18it'll snap.
18:19Nature has limits,
18:20and mammals have learned to work within them.
18:23So, when the light returned,
18:25reptiles were fewer and more fragile,
18:27clinging to the edges of ecosystems.
18:30Mammals, on the other hand,
18:31were everywhere.
18:33Before the asteroid,
18:34dinosaurs kept mammals small.
18:36And mammals,
18:37well, they didn't get much say about that.
18:40But now,
18:41with the giants gone,
18:43mammals could finally level up.
18:45And fungi?
18:47Well, they stuck around too.
18:49But mammals had already passed the ultimate test
18:51and came out on top.
18:54Thanks to their body heat,
18:55internal babies,
18:56flexible diets,
18:58and a little help from some deadly mushrooms,
19:00mammals inherited Earth.
19:03So yeah,
19:04no pet velociraptor.
19:05But maybe that's okay.
19:07You got a cat, right?
19:08Close enough.
19:10Actually, I think dogs are better.
19:11How do you feel about that?
19:13Let me know in the comments.
19:17That's it for today.
19:18So hey,
19:18if you pacified your curiosity,
19:20then give the video a like
19:22and share it with your friends.
19:23Or if you want more,
19:24just click on these videos
19:25and stay on the bright side.
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