Yes, an asteroid really did wipe out the dinosaurs, study finds

CNN — The age of the dinosaurs ended 66 million years ago with the ultimate bad day, not a prolonged period of climate change wrought by volcanic activity, according to new research. No, we show that Deccan Traps activity, if anything, might have buffered the ‘negative effects’ of the impact on climate, potentially boosting the recovery after the extinction event.” Dino ecosystems To determine whether it was the asteroid that hit off the coast of Mexico or the volcanic activity that unleashed the climate-changing gases, the team combined geological markers of climate and powerful mathematical models with information about what kinds of environmental factors, such as rainfall and temperature, each species of dinosaur needed to thrive. “Instead of only using the geologic record to model the effect on climate that the asteroid or volcanism might have caused worldwide, we pushed this approach a step forward, adding an ecological dimension to the study to reveal how these climatic fluctuations severely affected ecosystems,” said Alex Farnsworth, a paleoclimatologist at the University of Bristol and the co-lead author of the study, in a statement. The asteroid strike would have released particles and gases high into the atmosphere, blocking out the sun for years and causing extremely coldwintersthat made it impossible for nearly all dinosaur species, except those that evolved into birds, to survive, the study said. In fact, the research team’s models suggested that the volcanic activity could have played a role helping life bounce back from the asteroid strike, restoring habitats and helping the new species that evolved after the asteroid strike survive.