Dinosaurs died of rickets
By Science News
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August 4, 1928 | Vol. 14 | No. 382
Dinosaurs died of rickets
Thirty-five-ton dinosaurs, that languidly lived and loved in the slimy lagoons of the Mesozoic Age, some 135,000,000 years ago, probably disappeared off the earth because their supply of ultra-violet light was cut off by vast clouds of volcanic dust obscuring the face of the sun. And so the biggest brutes that ever walked became extinct from the action of rickets, universally known today as a malady of babies.
This is one of the newest theories of science to account for the disappearance of the dinosaurs, proposed by Dr. Harry T. Marshall, pathologist of the University of Virginia. Migrations, new enemies and the cold climatic changes brought about by the glaciers of an age of ice, along with the great reptiles’ own stupidity, great size, and sluggish habits, all helped the extinction along, but ultra-violet deficiency is felt by Dr. Marshall to be the main cause.
Lack of ultra-violet light and the anti-rachitic vitamin D bring about a disturbance of the mineral chemistry of the body that results in malformed bones. Deprived of sunlight, one of their necessary sources of vitality, and probably forced to eat strange foods as the changed climatic conditions fostered new types of plants, the great beasts gradually grew weaker and weaker. . .
“If the ancient types of animal were dependent upon the sun’s short rays,” explained Dr. Marshall, “ultra-violet deficiency should have been followed by rather rapid extinction.” —Marjorie MacDill