Final answer:
The essay discusses the evidence for recent impacts on Earth and how a massive impact led to the extinction of dinosaurs.
Step-by-step explanation:
Stephen Jay Gould's essay, "Sex, Drugs, Disasters, and the Extinction of Dinosaurs," discusses the evidence for recent impacts on Earth and how a massive impact changed the conditions for life on Earth, leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs.
Gould explains that the best-documented large impact took place 65 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period, causing a mass extinction where more than half of the species on Earth died out, including the dinosaurs.
He notes that impacts by comets and asteroids represent the only mechanisms that could cause global catastrophes and have a significant influence on the evolution of life on Earth.