Dinosaurs were thriving when asteroid wiped them out

Dinosaurs were unaffected by long-term climate changes and flourished before their sudden demise by asteroid strike 66 million years ago, according to a study. Scientists largely agree that an asteroid impact, possibly coupled with intense volcanic activity, wiped out the dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous period. However, there is debate about whether dinosaurs were flourishing before this, or whether they had been in decline due to long-term changes in climate, according to the study published in the journal Nature Communications. Previously, researchers used the fossil record and some mathematical predictions to suggest dinosaurs may have already been in decline. Now, in a new analysis, UK researchers from Imperial College London, University College London and University of Bristol have shown that dinosaurs were likely not in decline before the meteorite.