Sydney School of Arts & Humanities
Impressions
No 2 - 2025
ISSN 22093265
I thought dinosaurs were extinct, but then ... look what I found!
We go to an awful lot of time and effort searching for months, even years sometimes, in hopes we will find their fossilised remains to be carefully examined and preserved in our museums. There is something inherently human in our need to never lose sight of these amazing beasts, as if their fate is forever tied up with ours, especially as we face the consequences of our own making.
The catastrophe that was about to unfold began one morning in early spring some 66 million years ago. Dinosaur babies staying close to their mothers' sides as they foraged for food, others heading for the river to drink and wash their huge bodies or tend to their wounds from the previous day’s encounters.
Huge Flying dinosaurs gliding overhead through the pristine air. 'Oh, isn’t this marvellous! What a beautiful place to roam and multiply our species!'
What they did not know was that a huge asteroid from a gravitational interaction with giant Jupiter was now on a collision course with earth and that within a matter of minutes the world they had lived happily upon for thousands of years was about to undergo a change so deadly it would completely wipe them out.
With lightning speed, as quiet as it was silent, the huge asteroid hit the Yucatan region in what we now call Mexico, setting off a 10-metre high seismic wave.
Within a few minutes this wave of extreme heat, not unlike the heat from molten rock, incinerated everything for miles around.
The eco system was completely destroyed along with the dinosaurs, their fossilised bones impacted by the blast in such a way that palaeontologists have no doubt as to the force of this deadly event.
The nuclear winter that followed lasted for thousands of years, with only those smaller animals who could burrow deep into the earth's surface escaping the fallout.
It's hard for us to imagine such an event happening today and yet when we watch images on our screens of the wild fires around the world - sudden devastating floods and cyclones - we have a small glimpse into the vast natural forces at work in the universe.
The warning: never get too comfortable!
Story credits:
Text: Meg Mooney
Photos: C V Williams
Peter Stankovic
Peter A Stankovic started his career as a chartered accountant and over the years became an independent finance professional. Writing was something he did occasionally until he retired from his finance career. He then took up full time writing and has published three other works. He lives with his family in Sydney, Australia.
What Writing Means to Peter:
Writing in 2017 means nothing more than it did in 1977 except that I now have the time to pursue it. I’ve always enjoyed reading or watching plays or films because, through them, I learned much. About life, about ideas, about characters and hence people. So it’s great to be able to share my world with others.
Of course, nobody might read stuff I create but it still makes me enjoy the process. If my work is art I’d be surprised. If my work sells, I’d be surprised but grateful. I tell stories I like. I don’t care if nobody else likes them. I’ve lived a full life and now I can sit back and draw from experiences or thoughts and jot them down.