Name : Haekel Ibra Nur Hakim

NIM : F041201016

1. What three main causes does the author suggest to explain the extinction of the
dinosaurs?
 Earth’s climate
 A lack of food
 The earth’s collisions with a large asteroid
2. How are the supporting paragraphs organized?
 The supporting paragraphs are well structured, because they include facts and
explain specifically about what happened by the events mentioned
3. What techniques are used in the introduction and conclusion?
 Introduction : Present facts and statistics
 Conclusion : Make a summarize
4. What transitions did the author use to achieve coherence? Underline them in the essay.

The extinction of the dinosaurs

For almost 140 million years, dinosaurs and other large reptiles ruled the land, sky, and
sea. Dinosaurs came in sizes and shapes suited to every corner of the world. Then,
approximately 65 million years ago, these huge reptiles died out and mammals took over the
Earth. Few mysteries have ever excited the imaginations of scientists as much as this great
extinction that killed off all the dinosaurs. Over the years, scientists have developed many
theories to explain the disappearance of the dinosaurs and the other great reptiles. Three of the
most common explanations are a gradual change in the Earth's climate, a lack of food, and the
Earth's collision with a large asteroid.

Traditionally, scientists believed that the number of dinosaurs declined slowly for
millions of years before they eventually disappeared. Many studies of fossils point to a slow
change in the environmental conditions on Earth. This led to a generally cooler climate. Toward
the end of the Cretaceous Period, the climate may have become too cold for the dinosaurs. Many
dinosaurs were too big to hibernate in dens. In addition, they lacked fur or feathers for
protection against the cold. Smaller animals had the advantage of being able to hibernate during
cold periods. Mammals and birds were better suited to withstand the cold because they had fur or
feathers for protection. It may have been easier for these animals to migrate to warmer places to
avoid the cold weather. In these ways, such animals could have survived the colder climate that
may have slowly killed off the dinosaurs.
 Another explanation of dinosaur extinction has to do with food. Some experts think
that plant-eating dinosaurs could not digest the new kinds of plants that developed during the
Cretaceous Period. Eventually, they starved to death. As the plant-eating dinosaurs died off, so
did the meat-eaters who fed on them. Other experts believe that since the dinosaurs could not
compete successfully with mammals for food, they eventually lost the struggle for existence.

Today, some scientists believe that the cause of the extinction was much more
sudden and catastrophic. In the late 1970s, scientists discovered evidence for the abrupt end to
the Age of Dinosaurs, Dr. Louis Alvarez and his colleagues arrived at a revolutionary hypothesis
to explain the extinction of dinosaurs. They suggest that about 65 million years ago, the Earth
was struck by a huge asteroid. The asteroid was destroyed in the explosion and billions of tons of
dust were thrown up into the air. A thick cloud of dust blocked out sunlight for a long time.
Without the sun's energy, plants were not able to make food and they died. The lack of plants
killed off many of the plant-eating dinosaurs, which then caused the death of the meat-eating
dinosaurs that preyed on them. The darkness caused temperatures to fall below freezing for many
months. This sudden change in climate further decreased the dinosaur populations.

It seems that no one theory adequately explains why dinosaurs died out. Perhaps
dinosaurs simply could not adjust to the changes that were taking place on the Earth toward the
end of the Cretaceous Period. Most likely, it was a combination of causes that contributed to the
end of the Age of Dinosaurs.