Week 9 RJA

Thesis Statement:
The extinction of the dinosaurs has been credited to many different theories including asteroids, volcanoes and climate change, but one claim, evolution, has been largely ignored.


Argument:

Research question: What killed the dinosaurs?
Thesis: Although it is almost impossible to discover the truth, I believe that evolution played an important role in the extinction of the dinosaurs.
   Reason #1: With carbon dating, scientists claim that the K-T extinction occurred between 65.5 and 66 million years ago. That is a window of 500,000 years in which the dinosaurs were killed off.
  Reason #2: A combination of evolution and climate change possibly could have eliminated 75% of the species of plants and animals on the planet.
  Reason #3: A mass extinction caused by a natural disaster would have taken much less time to destroy the flora and fauna on the planet.
  Reason #4: The claims that a large meteorite or volcanic eruptions caused the extinction of the dinosaurs does not explain how mammals were able to survive in a post-apocalyptic reality.

  Counterargument #1: Super volcanoes caused by the shifting of the tectonic plates caused the extinction of the dinosaurs
  Counterargument#2: A large meteorite or asteroid crashed into the Earth creating an explosion that wiped the plants and animals off the face of the planet.
  Counterargument#3: Climate change caused by either of the previous arguments or by greenhouse gases created a planet that was uninhabitable.

week 3 RJA

Research Topic Exploration

                While exploring my topic, I discovered that there were many more sub topics than I thought. Many scientists actually doubt the idea that the dinosaur extinction was one catastrophic event. Mass extinction has happened a few times in history and could have actually happened over a period of millions of years. If evolution does not occur, species will die off. Many scientists debate the different ideas of extinction, including the scientists at University of California at Berkeley who originally proposed different theories of the extinction. The evidence discovered by archaeologists lead scientists to discuss the ideas of asteroids, volcanoes, disease and climate change, although there are many more theories. The topic of the dinosaur extinction is much more involved than I originally thought.

Research Topic Focus

                I believe that my ideas are still going to focus on the four major theories of the extinction of the dinosaurs which are asteroids, volcanoes, disease and climate change. After the little amount of research I have done, I am beginning to believe that it might have been a combination of all of these things. If you ask most people the two major theories are asteroids and volcanoes. My issue with these ideas is the lack of evidence to support one catastrophic event causing the extinction of 70% of the life on the planet. This was not the first major extinction. Previous to this there was an extinction that caused the loss of 90% of the life on this planet. Is it possible that both of these extinctions could have been caused by the same things? Could it happen to us? These are the questions that need to be answered by the scientific investigation.

Research Question

What caused the extinction of the dinosaurs?

When did this happen and was it a catastrophic event or a process of time?

Why did it happen (overpopulation, weather, etc.)?

Would this have happened under different circumstances?

If this was caused by a major catastrophic event, where did it happen?

How did the environment impact the extinction of the dinosaurs?

Who originally proposed the different theories of the extinction of the dinosaurs?

week 2 RJA

Diigo Account     www.diigo.com/user/wdial10
Possible Topics

• nature vs. nurture
• extinction of the dinosaurs
• string theory
• death penalty
• is there a criminal (sociopath) gene

 Research Topic  The topic of my research paper has taken me a long time to decide. I have been thinking about what to write since I registered for this class. The range of topics has gone from steroids in professional sports to is there a gay gene to the string theory in physics. The reason for this wide range of topics is that I have many interests and a lot of useless information in my head. I have always considered myself a trivia buff which means that my knowledge covers a varied array of topics. After much deliberation, I have decided that my topic is going to be one that children everywhere want to know the answer. How did the dinosaurs become extinct?
   I have never studied dinosaurs or had much interest in them until recently. While researching global warming for a speech I had to give, the topic of the extinction of dinosaurs came up in an article I was reading. I think everyone has thought about it at some point in time. My theory has always been the prevalent one. A giant comet hit the Earth and wiped out the dinosaurs. But as popular as that belief is, it is not the only one. Climate change, volcanoes, and disease are also popular ideas.
   After seeing the different theories, my interest was piqued. I am a firm believer in global warming and the idea of climate change destroying a large population of this world had me intrigued. Also the idea that a super disease could kill so many living things was interesting. I feel like the study of the mass extinction is relevant today because of the advances we are making in science. The human race has created some awful diseases and weapons and yet we still could miss an asteroid and still can't control the weather. I have felt like mother nature is out to get us for a long time. If we study what happened to the dinosaurs then maybe we can stop it from happening to us.