The dinosaurs that reigned between 66 and 247 million years ago were massive — some even heavier the space shuttle Endeavour. It seems fitting that they’d meet their end at the hands of a force as powerful as an asteroid and the catastrophic volcanic activity that followed. But a sneakier, more sinister culprit was already wreaking havoc on the dinosaurs long before that asteroid pummeled into the Yucatan Peninsula, evolutionary psychologists argued on Tuesday. In their radical new study, they place the blame on toxic plants

In the paper, published in the February edition of Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, the University of Albany’s Gordon Gallup, Ph.D. and the University of Baltimore’s Michael Frederick, Ph.D. assert that food poisoning killed the dinosaurs long before the asteroid hit. They call their idea the “biotic revenge” hypothesis.

“Since the spread of toxic plants occurred slowly, that [the hypothesis] is consistent with recent evidence showing that dinosaurs began to disappear millions of years before the asteroid impact and continued to go extinct for millions of years later,” Gallup, a psychology professor at the University at Albany, tells Inverse. “Thus, dinosaurs may have gone extinct because of a simple psychological deficit.”

Dinosaurs, toxic plants

Toxic plants may have contributed to the gradual die-off of the dinosaurs.

According to this hypothesis, large, herbivorous dinosaurs ate huge quantities of plant life, including the first toxic angiosperms, which, in turn, gave the dinosaurs great gastrointestinal distress. But because they hadn’t yet figured out taste aversion — that is, learning not to go back to the heinous place last gave you food poisoning — they continued to eat the toxic plants, eventually consuming harmful and lethal doses. This effect of their psychological deficit, they write, “placed additional stress on the species” and “may have done particular damage to dinosaurs” before the asteroid arrived.

The idea of biotic revenge fits in with the increasingly accepted idea that dinosaurs were already in decline millions of years before their semi-final extinction. The fossil record indicates that, before the end of the Cretaceous Period, there already was a slump in dinosaur populations and an increase in the diversity of birds. When Gallup learned that the first toxic plants appeared in the fossil record at about the same time dinosaurs began to go extinct, it dawned on him that this gradual extinction may be linked to the angiosperms.

“The intriguing feature of evolutionary theory,” says Gallup, “is that it enables you to think about things outside the box.”

Dinosaur, extinciton

More than an asteroid influenced dinosaur extinction.

To back up this claim, Gallup and Frederick examined studies on development of taste aversion among animals that outlived the dinosaurs. Birds, which are thought to have evolved from small meat-eating dinosaurs like velociraptors. Previous studies have shown that present-day birds are capable of learning food aversions, though they do so by sight rather than taste: For example, birds know bright orange monarch butterflies are filled with milkweed toxins, so they’ve learned to avoid them. Gallup and Frederick argue that this psychological ability may have helped birds avoid the fate of other dinosaurs.

They also reevaluated research on crocodilians — which share a common ancestor with dinosaurs and are the closest living relative of birds — that had been conducted by Gallup in 1987, showing that some species didn’t have the capacity for learned taste aversion. By inducing sickness in a group of caimans to see whether they’d associate illness with certain types of foods, they discovered that the caimans were always willing to eat anything, whether it made them sick or not.

This inability to learn taste aversion is a trait that the study authors think could have been shared by dinosaurs, but a lucky quirk of habitat saved them from extinction. The reason that crocodilians didn’t go extinct, they write, is “that being aquatic carnivores, they never had to cope with the problems posed by consuming toxic terrestrial plants.”

Caiman, crocodile

Caimans do not appear to have a learned taste aversion.

Gallup and Frederick are well aware that this unusual hypothesis may make skeptical paleontologists ask: What do a couple of psychologists know about dinosaur extinction? Rather than scoff at their theory, however, they hope paleontologists will help them evaluate the fossil record further in order to test their hypothesis with empirical evidence.

So did early toxic plants enact a biotic revenge? More evidence is necessary to say so definitively. But if dinosaurs really were munching down toxic plants despite extreme belly pain, it’s theoretically possible that their fatal psychological deficit pushed them toward extinction. The asteroid, says Gallup, “certainly played a factor,” but it’s plants that may have “placed severe strain on the species.”

Who Were The Star People Mentioned By Ancient Cultures Around The Globe?

No matter where you look, ancient legends, mythologies and written accounts mention beings that came down from the heavens and came in contact with ancient mankind thousands of years ago.

Referred to as the ‘star people’, these beings are considered by many mainstream authors and ancient astronaut theorists as flesh and blood aliens.

One of the most incredible accounts of star people can be found in Native American history and folklore.

And while stories of intelligent beings visiting Earth from a distant place in the cosmos date back as far as history can look back, spanning across countless cultures and different continents, mainstream scholars pay little to no attention at all, when dealing with such subjects.

History before history mentions beings, not from Earth. Called Star People, Ancestors, Gods, different names describe the same beings that came down from the heavens.

Taking a look at Native American folklore, legends, and myths, we find plenty of information about the so-called Star Beings, who were nothing other than flesh and blood aliens, note ancient astronaut theorists.

Ancient Aliens?

And when it comes to Native American Folklore, and mentions of star beings, Richard Wagamese, one of Canada’s foremost authors and storytellers from the Wabaseemoong First Nation in Northwestern Ontario tells us how:

“My people tell of Star People who came to us many generations ago. The Star people brought spiritual teachings and stories and maps of the cosmos and they offered these freely. They were kind, loving and set a great example. When they left us, my people say there was a loneliness like no other.”

Richard asks a number of interesting questions which we cannot seem to answer.

“If Star People did come to the Ojibway, where did they go? Where did they come from? Who brought teachings to them? What scientific magic did they own that allowed them to make such an incredible journey – and is it possible for us?”

(source)

Who were these mysterious beings?

But just as Wagamese, other people who know Native American history and folklore have fascinating things to say when it comes down to ‘star people’.

Stephane Wuttunee, who is a Plains Cree and French-Canadian author and storyteller wrote a very interesting piece for UFO Digest in which he explains his understanding of ‘ET phenomena as a Native person and its global implications’ comes from ‘having been partially raised within the culture itself.’

Wuttunee explains that in his culture, “give far greater attention to the seeking of the spiritual understanding of things rather than going after “the truth” as people from dominant cultures do. This is part of the reason why we tend to stand back and view or listen at first rather than bare in with questions or take the hard, direct approach.” (source)

Through his understanding, Wuttunee explains what he thinks of the Star People saying: “…distant relations and Star People living amongst the stars many times, mainly around campfires and during traditional ceremonies. Far from being anything to be feared, Star People was just another term I grew up around. I remember listening in awe and fascination at the thought of us having relations that lived off and outside our world, and sometimes spoke to them in my silent moments at night. I wanted to know who they were and what they looked like, if they had families like us etc. In all honesty, the only time I was exposed to “aliens” per se was when I would go to the outhouse and read the Weekly World News or National Enquirer. It wasn’t until my later teens that I discovered that people from the dominant cultures were talking about the same “people” as my elders did, though each side’s sense of perception of these people seemed radically different from one another.”

But perhaps what the most interesting part in all of this is, is the fact that as Wuttunee explains, the elders never really managed to discern ‘aliens’ and the spiritual world.

“In fact, at times I heard Aboriginal elders blend the two together and treat them as one, which I have to admit did kind of take me for a spin when I was young. Were our distant relations physical like us? Did they also exist amongst us in spirit? I had many unanswered questions, so I guess from a fairly young age I had some unraveling to do,” explains Wuttunee.

But in addition to Wuttunee and Wagamese, others too have spoken about the star people.

Sioux Chief Golden Light Eagle mentions the star people in the videos below: