Final answer:
A dinosaur must be quickly buried to be protected from scavenging, decay, and environmental disruption for fossilization. Moreover, dinosaurs post-meteor impact died due to a debris cloud blocking sunlight, causing a massive extinction.
Step-by-step explanation:
In order for a dinosaur to be fossilized, it needs to die and be buried quickly to be protected from factors such as scavengers, decomposition, and environmental conditions. Quick burial can occur due to natural disasters, such as mudslides or volcanic ash, which helps to preserve their remains. It's important to note that the chance of an organism being preserved as a fossil is very low due to the rare conditions required for fossilization.
To answer the student's question, a dinosaur needs to be quickly buried after death in order to be protected from scavenging, decay, and environmental factors that would otherwise destroy its remains.
Regarding the mass extinction event that affected the dinosaurs, the choice C. Debris in the atmosphere formed a thick cloud, which blocked the sun. Plants and animals died. explains why the dinosaurs that survived the immediate impact of the meteorite also died off. This was part of a series of climatic disturbances that led to the mass extinction, and the cosmic impact played a significant role.