Were Dinosaurs Doomed Before the Asteroid?

The fossil record suggests the dinos were already in decline before they met their sudden end.

D-brief
By Eric Betz
Apr 19, 2016 12:21 AMJan 24, 2020 2:29 AM
Alamosaurus Sauropod - Wikimedia
Sauropod species, including large plant-eaters like Brontosaurus and Alamosaurus, shown here, may have started dying off more than 100 million years before the Chicxulub asteroid impact. Yet Alamosaurus fossils are found just below the worldwide layer of impact debris, indicating they were among the last surviving dinosaur species. (Credit: rDiBgd/Wikimedia Commons)

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The age of the dinosaurs was growing stale long before that infamous impact. A new study claims that dinosaurs were doomed to extinction before a city-sized space rock abruptly ended their reign some 66 million years ago. The analysis, published online Monday in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, shows many species had already been dwindling for tens of millions of years.

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