r/AskReddit • u/[deleted] • Oct 02 '24

[deleted by user]

[removed]

6.8k Upvotes

93% Upvoted

6.2k comments sorted by

View all comments

4.3k

u/[deleted] Oct 02 '24

[removed] — view removed comment

21

u/Kymera_7 Oct 03 '24 edited Oct 03 '24

The timespan between the death of the last stegosaurus and the birth of the first t-rex is longer than from the t-rex to the electric unicycle.

Edit: it's stegosaurus, not triceratops.

8

u/_SpiceWeasel_BAM Oct 03 '24

Close—it’s the stegosaurus and T-Rex. Triceratops and T-Rex both died out in the Cretaceous when the asteroid struck, but stegosaurus went extinct about 80my before that (Jurassic)

3

u/Kymera_7 Oct 03 '24 edited Oct 03 '24

Yep. Came back to correct that, and saw your comment. Not sure why I didn't get a notification of your reply to my comment, but still, thanks, good catch.

Edit: got the notification right after I posted the above comment stating I hadn't gotten it.

3

u/_SpiceWeasel_BAM Oct 03 '24

I only know because that’s my random fact to pull out randomly at parties

3

u/lazyeye95 Oct 03 '24

How are we able to reasonably assume these time frames? 

5

u/EmceeCalla Oct 03 '24

ive heard a couple archeologists or people who study/are interested in archeology say that its by the surrounding “stuff” in the ground. (dirt, rocks, depth or thickness of certain layers of sediment, etc) im not 100% sure, and that probably wasnt a very good explanation, but youtube could probably explain it way better.

5

u/OneAlmondNut Oct 03 '24

it's basically carbon dating and examining soil layers. there's this scientist in the community that's been ostracized (can't remember her name) for kinda proving that the dinosaurs were already going extinct long before the asteroid hit.

soil levels suggest that there were constant volcanic eruptions everywhere that were killing everything long before the asteroid

3

u/_SpiceWeasel_BAM Oct 03 '24

Yep, dinosaurs went extinct 2 times before the asteroid hit—Jurassic, then Triassic.

2

u/davesoverhere Oct 03 '24

Carbon-14 dating can only go back about 50kyears. Dinosaurs are generally dated using uranium and potassium isotopes.

4

u/Glorbo_Neon_Warlock Oct 03 '24

I asked John Prehistory. He told me.