[9급 지방직 영어 2012년 19번]

Zoologists at SUNY have observed how sea turtles develop into males or females. Turtle eggs that lie in the sand at cool temperatures produce male turtles. And eggs that incubate at about 5 degrees higher produce females. If dinosaurs were like modern turtles, a sudden drop in temperature for even a short time may have simply eliminated all females from the species. Under stress, some female lizards that are alive today, reproduce hermaphroditically, that is, all by themselves. But male lizards cannot manage on their own. The world of the dinosaurs may have ended initially with a bang, as volcanoes erupted or an asteroid crashed. But then, as lonely males sought fruitlessly for mates, it may have simply faded away, with a whimper.