London ,THE EXTINCTION of dinosaurs at the end of Mesozoic era was caused by an asteroid colliding with earth and not massive volcanic activity, an international panel of experts has concluded.
The Cretaceous-Tertiary (KT) extinction, which happened around 65 million years ago, led to end of more than half of all species on the planet, including the dinosaurs, bird-like pterosaurs and large marine reptiles, clearing the way for mammals to become the dominant species.

Asteroid collision and volcanic activity in the Deccan Traps in India have been two causes of KT extinction have been put forward as possible explanations for the KT extinction.
However, the panel of 41 experts, including those from Britain and United States, based on a comprehensive review of 20-year research on the issue, revealed that the Chicxulub asteroid impact is the only plausible explanation for the extinction of dinosaurs and other species.
A series of super volcanic eruptions in the Deccan Traps in India lasted approximately 1.5 million years and these spewed 1,100,000 km3 of basalt lava across the Deccan Traps, which would have been enough to fill the Black Sea twice, and were thought to have caused a cooling of the atmosphere and acid rain on a global scale. The study was published in the journal Science.
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Lived 10m years earlier than thought
London: Dinosaurs lived on earth almost 10 million years earlier than previously thought, a new discovery suggests. An international team has in fact based its conclusion on the discovery of a four-legged ancestor of the prehistoric creatures that hails from 250 million years ago, the Nature journal reported. The large dog-sized creature, which ate meat and vegetation, seems to be a similar relation to dinosaurs as chimps are to humans, say palaeontologists who have analysed the fossils found in Tanzania and dubbed it a “proto-saur”.    —PTI