How did Chicxulub kill all the dinosaurs, yet leave behind other species?
In: Planetary Science
The biggest effect around the planet was from all the dust the meteor impact threw up. All that dust decrease the sunlight getting through for decades. Less sunlight meant the huge plants characteristic of the age didn’t have enough energy to survive, so they died off. The large dinosaurs that ate those large plants died from lack of food. The dinosaur that at those large dinosaurs also died.
What survived were the small creatures. The small plants that evolved to live in the shade of their giant neighbors. The small animals that evolved to hide and eat those small plants, and the small predators that evolved to eat those small animals. The same goes for sea creatures.
Eventually the skies cleared and the bright sun reached the plants. Slowly they evolved to take advantage of all the new energy they suddenly had that was originally gobbled up by their overshadowing neighborhs. As those plants grew, the food web could support larger herbivore which could support larger carnivores.
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