Theories have been bouncing around ever since we started pulling
gigantic fossils out of the ground, but now scientists think
they’ve definitively figured out what killed the dinosaurs. Not
surprisingly, the prevailing theory that an asteroid was to
blame looks to be correct, as a new study shows that an apparent
asteroid strike in Mexico was the likely cause of the dinos’
demise. Scientists have long thought the 100-mile-wide crater
left behind by an asteroid strike in Chicxulub, Mexico, was the
cause of extinction, but the timelines never added up. Until
now. Scientists originally thought the strike happened 300,000
years before dinosaurs went extinct, though a new study shows
the events were more like 33,000 years apart—a pretty small
window once you factor in the overall age of the planet.
Berkeley Geochronology Center Director Paul Renne told
LiveScience they figured it all out by facilitating a
radiometric dating study of debris near the strike. Scientist
believe the asteroid was approximately six miles