Entropy, A Possible Cause of Extinction of Dinosaurs

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Entropy is defined as the energy which is not available for work. The second law of thermodynamics state that the entropy of a system is always increasing or remains constant. For example the thermal energy always moves from the region of high temperature to region of lower temperature and in doing so loses energy. The lost energy is called the entropy of the system. There are many theories which relate to the extinction of dinosaurs from the Earth while other survived. One of the theories is based on the entropy of the system.


The entropy of a system is indirectly proportional to the order of the system which means as the entropy of a system increases the order of the system decreases. Orderliness of a system increases as the size of the system increases. The theory of extinction of the dinosaur states that the entropy of the system during that era increased resulting in less order. Since the larger organisms are more ordered than the smaller organism the increase in entropy affects the larger organism more. Thus, as the entropy increased it caused more of in orderliness in their system causing them to become extinct. Thus, the dinosaurs which were large and had more organized life were affected by the decrease in orderliness and ultimately did not survive.


Though there are many theories which states the various reasons for the extinction of dinosaurs, entropy theory has been tested by null hypothesis. There other theories explaining the cause of extinction of dinosaurs include that of changes in climate, cataract blindness, volcanism, catastrophe caused by hitting of the meteorite. Some diseases have also been sought as a cause of the wiping out of the dinosaurs. Global flood is the most supported view for the mass killing of the dinosaurs.