AI Summary
5 min readIf you were ripped through a wormhole and dropped into the last day of the Cretaceous period, 66 million years ago, the first thing you would notice is the dinosaurs. Not just the Tyrannosaurus rex, but also the "weird birds" with teeth and claws, and the pterodactyls overhead. You would also notice what was missing: no grasslands, no prairies, no savannas. Grasses were only just beginning to evolve and had not yet reshaped the landscape. Mammals were tiny and scurrying out of sight.
But the most immediate, physical sensation would not be visual. It would be the air. According to paleontologist Steve Brusatte, speaking on Science Friday, the atmosphere itself would be the most disorienting part of the experience—and the most scientifically revealing.
The air you would be breathing
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What you'll learn
- 1 (00:47) **Introducing the Dinosaur Thought Experiment** - Host Ira Flatow sets up the premise: what would modern humans face if transported to the Cretaceous period, prompted by the movie *The End of Oak Street*.
- 2 (02:00) **First Impressions: Dinosaurs, Birds, and Missing Landscapes** - Prasati describes what a human would immediately see and feel in the Cretaceous.
- 3 (02:54) **The Cretaceous Atmosphere: Hotter and Harder to Breathe** - The climate and air composition would be a major physical challenge for a modern human.
- 4 (04:14) **Disease Risks: A Two-Way Threat** - The potential for viral and bacterial infection between modern humans and dinosaurs is discussed.
- 5 (04:57) **The Paleontologist’s Dream Destination** - Prasati reveals where and when he would choose to go if he could use a wormhole.
- 6 Standout Quotes
- 7 (03:34) "They actually found that during part of the age of dinosaurs the amount of carbon dioxide would have been something like three times as much as there is in the atmosphere today."
+ Full timestamped outline available in the app
Show Notes
In the new movie “The End Of Oak Street,” bits of a suburban Michigan neighborhood get sucked back through time to a prehistoric world of dinosaurs. It made us wonder, aside from the danger of getting snacked on by an allosaurus, what other challenges would modern humans face in that ancient world?
Flora talks with paleontologist Steve Brusatte about the conditions of the late Cretaceous era.
Guest:
Dr. Steve Brusatte is a paleontologist and author of “The Story of Birds: A New History from their Dinosaur Origins to the Present.”
Transcript will be available after the show airs on sciencefriday.com.
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