Dinosaurs were in the prime when the asteroid struck, study reveals

A new study has shed light into the living conditions of dinosaurs during the time they went extinct. Here's how they fared.

Dinosaurs went extinct around 65 million years ago, marking the start of the Paleogene period. (Pixabay)

Dinosaurs dominated the Earth millions of years ago during the Mesozoic Era. This included three consecutive geological periods - Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous Periods, during which different species of these creatures inhabited the Earth. But how did these predatory creatures go extinct? Well, Paleontologists believe their extinction process started when an asteroid struck the Earth nearly 65 million years ago. Now, a new study has revealed that dinosaurs were in their prime when the fateful asteroid struck, sending them into extinction.

The study revealed that dinosaurs were in the prime of their lives during the late Cretaceous period when the asteroid ended their lives abruptly. According to phys.org, the study was conducted by University of Edinburgh and published in the Science Advances journal. Fossil records were studied to reconstruct the food webs of these creatures 1000 years before and after the asteroid strike. This information was used to study how some mammals and birds survived this mass extinction event. Over 1600 fossil specimens were studied which included nearly every type of animal that became food during the late Cretaceous period.

It was revealed that the dinosaurs had a stable place in the ecological web without any signs of decline of their food sources, according to lead author of the study Jorge García-Girón, an ecologist with both Finland's University of Oulu and Spain's University of León. He said, "The dinosaurs were far more stable in their ecologies. They were, of course, masters of their ecosystem. Mammals, on the other side, were diversifying and starting to colonize different habitats and different environments.”

The asteroid that killed the dinosaurs

The size of the dinosaur killing asteroid was between 10.6 and 80.9 km in diameter and it crashed in Chicxulub, near the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico. When did the Chicxulub asteroid crash? More than 65 million years ago. This asteroid terraformed the Earth in a manner that suitable for the emergence of mammals, including humans. The impact of the asteroid would've caused the formation of huge tidal waves and an impact crater almost 140KM wide and would've caused the land material to splatter into space, changing the Earth into a nuclear winter like environment.

Scientists have also discovered the origin of the asteroid which crashed-landed on Earth. It would've originated between the orbit of Mars and Jupiter. And although scientists say an asteroid could again impact the Earth, it is a 250-million-year cycle and is very likely to miss the lifetimes of our future generations and by the time one does come along, humans would be technologically so advanced they would be able to deal with the problem of the asteroid.