Two hundred fifty million years ago, dinosaurs walked this earth. Although their brains were no larger than walnuts, these beasts managed to survive for over 155 million years.

To give you an idea of how long that is, imagine the Earth’s entire history squashed into one year. The dinosaurs came in early August and were gone by late November. Man appeared around the late hours of December 31.

`The dinosaurs were here for almost a quarter of Earth’s history, and then they were gone. How did they disappear?

Many extinction theories have been proposed. I will share a few here, after which I will offer my own theory.

One of the first theories was that the dinosaurs were simply victims of racial senescence; that is, they simply reached a peak in their evolution and then declined into nothing.

This theory may work, but except for one problem. The dinosaurs were more diverse in form and function by the end of the Cretaceous period (before the extinction) than in any other time. If the dinosaurs had a peak, it was at the time of their extinction.

Another theory states that the dinosaurs suffered hormonal imbalances. These chemical changes affected eggs which became more fragile and broke before the young hatched.

Fossilized eggs found in Montana and Canada show otherwise. The unearthed evidence shows strong and healthy eggs at the time of the Cretaceous.

Even rogue stars have been blamed for the demise of the dinosaurs. This is called the Nemesis Theory. It states that our sun had a sister star which orbited the sun.

Every 26 million years, this Nemesis star came close to our solar system and disrupted the asteroid belt. A storm of asteroids then pelted the planets including Earth. This theory was an excellent idea in that, not only did it explain the dinosaur extinction, but it would also account for many other mass extinctions that have occurred.

Unfortunate for this theory is that no such star has been found.

There have been countless other extinction theories. Some state that plants became too poisonous for dinosaurs to eat. The dinosaurs did not adapt and thus perished.

Some scientists have said that carnivorous dinosaurs took part in overkill and the population declined as such.

Others have said that a drastic change in earth’s climate was responsible for the extinction. They say that the climate could have been changed by increased volcanic activity, a drying period, or a long winter brought on by a comet strike.

So far, the comet strike theory is the only one to have stood up. I have another theory however.

As it turns out, the extinction may have taken a few thousand years and not as swift and brutal as a comet strike.

Just recently, the remains of a new dinosaur were found in the “Richardson” formation right here in Ames. The remains showed a peculiar coat of soot all over the bones as if it had been burned or had burned something and got caught in the flames. Scientists have tentatively named this dinosaur Lamposaurus halogens.

Paleontologists say that Lamposaurus had a heated head and was, thus, very dangerous should it remain too close to a tree, a tall stand of shrubs or other dinosaurs for that matter. Dinosaurs were slow to learn the dangers and perished in the many fires that ensued.

Some lamposaurs evolved shields over there heads that protected the surrounding environment from the possibility of fires, but this evolutionary feature did not catch on.

Other dinosaurs continually pushed the populations of lamposaurs into close quarters where they did their most damage.

Some were even forced into tight caves possibly causing the volcanoes that may have changed the climate (as stated earlier.)

As the lamposaurs were misplaced more and more, the fires increased and, eventually, the dinosaurs met their final demise.

This is, of course, only a theory. I have one more theory though.

Perhaps the dinosaurs drank too much alcohol? This theory probably won’t stand though. Why would such a population drink itself into oblivion? Then again, their brains were only the size of walnuts.

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Carmen Cerra is a senior in biological and premedical illustration from Redondo Beach, California.