A new study clarifies the cause of the dinosaurs’ “extinction”

The extinction of dinosaurs, which were among the largest and most ferocious animals to have ever roamed the planet Earth, is the subject of various theories. They are thought to have gone extinct as a result of an asteroid striking Earth, according to one well-known scenario. A fresh study on the asteroid impact scenario has surfaced in the meantime, attempting to explain why they were wiped out.

A new study claims that the massive dust cloud created by the asteroid hit is what drove dinosaurs extinct, Fox News reports. According to the findings, for fifteen years the Earth’s atmosphere was enveloped by a massive cloud of dust. Consequently, there was a 24 degree drop in temperature. For two years, photosynthesis—the process by which plants make food and oxygen—was halted.

Researchers looked at the sediment layers at the Tanis paleontology site in North Dakota, which contains asteroid impact evidence. Scientist Cem Berk Senel explains how the collision of an asteroid set off a series of events that led to the demise of dinosaurs.

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“Dust might cause photosynthesis to stop for so long that it could provide serious difficulties. Senel informed the Washington Post that it might cause all animals in the food chain to go extinct in a chain reaction.

About 75% of all species that were present on Earth at the time of the asteroid impact are thought to have perished as a result of it, according to scientists. According to some of them, the impact created a massive cloud that prevented plants from receiving sunlight, sparked wildfires, and emitted sulfur aerosols into the sky.

The researchers found that smaller dust particles were more important in obstructing sunlight than sulfur aerosols or soot particles.

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“The length of darkness is really important,” planetary scientist David Kring, who was not involved in the study, told the Washington Post. “If, in fact, photosynthesis was shut down, and that drove extinctions, it has to be dark for a fairly substantial length of time.”

Scientist Kring did point out that there isn’t a single factor that can be blamed for the demise of dinosaurs.

“The environmental effects of each of those events had varying degrees of impact and duration around the globe. Thus, one of the things we know in general—though not in great detail just yet—is that the extinctions were actually caused by a medley of environmental factors. There isn’t just one silver bullet, Kring clarified.