Tl;dr :: Dinosaurs were doing very well; Actually Great ! So the theory about the dinosaurs started to ''' decline ''' throughout the Cretaceous period is technically Debunked. That Damn Asteroid slaughtered them ! Second Asteroid was just sealing their fate | Grim Reaper's signature...
| Dinosaurs in New Mexico Thrived Until the Very End, Study Shows |
Study challenges long-held assumptions, finding late-surviving dinosaurs lived in vibrant, regionally distinct communities...
For decades, many scientists believed dinosaurs were already dwindling in numbers and variety long before an asteroid strike sealed their fate 66 million years ago. But new research in the journal Science from Baylor University, New Mexico State University, the Smithsonian Institution and an international team is rewriting that story. The dinosaurs, it turns out, were not fading away. They were flourishing.
| Latest Cretaceous Dinosaurs Lived in Vibrant, Regionally Distinct Communities |
The most iconic mass extinction in Earth history occurred around 66 million years ago, as rapid environmental destruction led to the extinction of around 75% of species, most famously the non-avian dinosaurs, and subsequently restructured terrestrial ecosystems.
Debate centers on whether dinosaurs vanished abruptly while diverse and flourishing or were in long-term decline before the end-Cretaceous.
New evidence reveals dinosaurs were thriving right up to the moment the asteroid hit Newly dated fossils from New Mexico challenge the idea that dinosaurs were in decline—and suggest instead they had formed flourishing communities !
Fossils reveal dinosaurs were thriving in North America just before being wiped out by asteroid strike, study shows...
Scientists have long debated whether dinosaurs were in decline before an asteroid smacked the Earth 66 million years ago, causing mass extinction.
New research suggests dinosaur populations were still thriving in North America before the asteroid strike, but it's only one piece of the global picture, independent experts say.
"Dinosaurs were quite diverse and now we know there were quite distinct communities" roaming around before being abruptly wiped out, said Daniel Peppe, a study co-author and paleontologist at Baylor University.
| Late-surviving New Mexican dinosaurs illuminate high end-Cretaceous diversity and provinciality |
Editor’s summary ::: Since researchers first began to understand that the mass nonavian dinosaur extinction occurring at the end of the Cretaceous was due to an asteroid, many have also debated whether these groups were already on the decline.
This debate has been ongoing for decades, in large part because there are few fossil sites dated to this precise time period outside of those in the northern plains of North America, which may only tell part of the story.
Flynn et al. now date a previously problematic site in New Mexico and model diversity and endemism around the asteroid impact. They found that non-avian dinosaurs were not in decline before this event, and it really was THE asteroid that did them in....
| Fossils of Some of the Last Dinosaurs in North America Have a Story to Tell |
| Rare look at the last days of the dinosaurs shows they were Thriving, scientists say |
An artist's impression of the last dinosaurs from southern North America features a long-necked Alamosaurus. Credit : Natalia Jagielska
A site in the San Juan Basin of northwestern New Mexico is providing a rare glimpse into the last days of the dinosaurs. Rocks and fossils at the Naashoibito Member site show an ecosystem that was filled with a diverse population of dinosaurs just before they disappeared from Earth.
Paleontologists have long debated if the dinosaurs suddenly went extinct when a 6.2-mile-wide (10-kilometer-wide) asteroid crashed into Mexico’s Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period, or if they were in a gradual decline and living in weakened ecosystems ahead of the catastrophic event.
Answering that question requires finding fossils and dating the surrounding rock to come up with an accurate timeline of the site. But identifying fossils in an area accurately dated to just before the extinction event is rare...
