The Cosmic BBQ: New Study Reignites Debate on Dinosaurs' Demise A new study has shed light on the fate of dinosaurs following the Chicxulub asteroid impact, reviving a contentious hypothesis that suggests a massive asteroid or comet collision was responsible for the mass extinction event that wiped out three quarters of all plant and animal species 66 million years ago.
The research, published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences, proposes that the impact would have produced an immense cloud of dust that superheated the upper atmosphere, effectively charbroiling living organisms unable to take shelter.
The study's findings are based on a reexamination of the Alvarez hypothesis, first proposed by Luis Alvarez and his son Walter in 1980.