Why did the dinosaurs become extinct? Could cholecalciferol (vitamin D3)deficiency be the answer?

Abstract

Palaeontological deductions from the fossil remnants of extinct dinosaurs tell us much about their classification into species as well as about their physio-logical and behavioural characteristics. Geological evidence indicates that dinosaurs became extinct at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Paleogeneeras, about 66 million years ago, at a time when there was worldwide environmental change resulting from the impact of a large celestial object with theEarth and/or from vast volcanic eruptions. However, apart from the presumption that climate change and interference with food supply contributed totheir extinction, no biological mechanism has been suggested to explain why such a diverse range of terrestrial vertebrates ceased to exist. One of perhapsseveral contributing mechanisms comes by extrapolating from the physiology of the avian descendants of dinosaurs. This raises the possibility thatchole-calciferol (vitamin D3)deficiency of developing embryos in dinosaur eggs could have caused their death before hatching, thus extinguishing the entire familyof dinosaurs through failure to reproduce.