Evaluative Analysis For Dinosaur Extinction

Evaluative Analysis for Dinosaur Extinction

In Stephen Jay Gould’s article, “Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” Gould begins to analyze the difference between science and speculation. In the article, Gould presents that science is considered allowing humans to be able to know and gain knowledge. In “Sex, Drugs, Disasters and the Extinction of Dinosaurs,” Gould begins to state the question of why dinosaurs became extinct and what possible causes could relate to the non-existence of the dinosaurs. The first theory that Gould contemplated for the extinction of dinosaurs could be caused by the sex hypothesis. Gould believed that this theory caused the non-existence of dinosaurs because testes can only perform in certain conditions. Therefore, when the temperature begins to rise above the appropriate level, the dinosaur’s testes start to become ineffective and cause them to stop functioning. The second theory that Gould envisioned was the possibility of drugs. In this theory, flowering plants evolved towards the time that the dinosaurs began to die out. These plants have a psychoactive chemical that, today, cause the animals to ignore the plant because of the bitterness. However, dinosaurs could not distinguish the bitter taste and their bodies could not metabolize and break down the toxins in the plants. This caused the toxins to build up in the dinosaurs and cause fatal overdoses. Gould believes …show more content…
However, as I got farther along in the reading, I began to think that Stephen Gould’s purpose was to inform us of three reasons that could account for the extinction of dinosaurs. I believe that the purpose of this article was informative, as Gould wasn’t trying to entertain or persuade us to do anything. Stephen Gould was giving detailed facts on why each of the three theories were good or bad hypotheses. In my opinion, I believe that Gould did an excellent job in informing his readers and was successful in achieving his purpose because the intent can easily be detected in the reading. Throughout the essay, Gould made several valuable points that I agree with. I strongly concur that the main reason why the dinosaurs became extinct was because some kind of disaster occurred. I agree with the disaster theory because, if you really think about it, a disaster is the only logical theory that makes sense as to why the dinosaurs vanished from earth. In addition, there have been several studies to prove that disasters are what caused the dinosaurs to become