Happy New Year BC 65 Million (for 2022) coloring page

 It's New Year's Eve.  

So today's new drawing is a New Years' Comic. 

Happy New Year BC 65 Million (for 2022)

(The T. rex, the Pteranodon, and the Tylosaurus definitely 

did NOT have a good year after the meteorite hit!)

This drawing shows the meteorite that very likely wiped out much of the Mesozoic Era life.  The meteorite hit at the end of the Cretaceous Period.  Before that, there were dinosaurs.... after the meteorite hit there soon were no more large dinosaurs.  The small feathered avian dinosaurs DID survive.  We call them birds.  

You should know that the large space rock that hit the Earth 65 million years ago actually hit the ocean just north of the Ycatan Penninsula.  There are various theories of why it killed off the big dinosaurs.  One says that the impact caused a fireball that encircled the total planet and if you were not small enough to hide in the ground you died.  Another theory is that so much ash and etc. were blasted into the air that it caused a "nuclear winter" and the big dinosaurs froze or starved to death.  Either way, the birds survived.  The big marine reptiles died off but the turtles and crocodiles survived.  

I have been a very amateur astronomer for 47 years... ever since my dad got me a telescope for Christmas when I was 13.  Sooooo.... I want to tell you that a space rock - that is still in space is called an asteroid.  The Solar System even has an asteroid belt with thousands of asteroids that orbit between Mars and Jupiter.  When an asteroid hits the Earth's atmosphere we call it a meteor.  They are also called shooting stars if they are very small asteroids.  Thousands of tiny asteroids hit the Earth's atmosphere and burn up without hitting the Earth.  I should say that thousands every day burn up without ever hitting the ground.  When a meteor is larger it does not burn completely up in the atmosphere.  It hits the ground and we call it a Meteorite.  I used to teach my science students that the meteorite hit RIGHT on the Earth...  Do you get it?  Meteorite hits rite on the Earth?  This helped my students remember the difference between meteors and meteorites.  

NOTE:  This drawing, along with many more drawings, are found in printable form by clicking on the buttons up top.  This drawing is found by clicking on the button labeled "Holidays."  Then scroll down to the New Years' section.  The title of this drawing will be at the bottom of that section.  Click on the title and you'll get a printable coloring page.