New research has found that dinosaurs were decimated by a deadly mixture of sulfur gases and cooled climate following a massive asteroid impact, RT reports.
Experts say that the gases were released into the Earth’s atmosphere following the collision Chicxulubthen orbited the globe for years, which in turn cooled the planet.
This contributed to the mass extinction of life regarding 66 million years ago, according to University of St Andrews researchers, who said the dinosaurs were “really unlucky.”“.
Despite the disaster for dinosaurs and other life, the impact of a six-mile-wide asteroid in the Yucatan Peninsula allowed the diversification of mammals, including primates.
Dr Aubrey Zirkli, from the School of Earth and Environmental Sciences at the University of St Andrews, said: ‘It appears that one reason for this particular effect was so destructive to life was that it landed in a marine environment that was rich in sulfur and other volatiles. Dinosaurs were really unlucky.”
The research, conducted in partnership with Syracuse University, New York, University of Bristol and Texas A&M University, aimed to explore the consequences of an asteroid impact. Chicxulub.
Sulfate aerosols have long been implicated as a major influencing factor for the mass extinction event, which marked the end of the Cretaceous and the beginning of the Paleogene on Earth, but to what extent was unknown..
The new research was able to examine rare sulfur isotopes in materials that were ejected by the impact and deposited in a nearby sea now represented by rocks along the Brazos River in Texas..
Atmospheric sulfur in the stratosphere scattered incoming solar radiation and cooled the planet for extended periods of time for many years following the original forcing, causing acid rain and reducing the light available for photosynthesis, which is vital for plant life and the marine plankton that make up the food chain.
Their findings suggest that the presence of sulfur can only be attributed to the effect of Chicxulubinstead of the previous theoretical effects of contemporary volcanoes in the province Deccan Traps volcanic large.
The Cretaceous period, the third and final period of the Mesozoic era, lasted from regarding 145 to 66 million years ago, and was characterized by a warm climate with the domination of reptiles and dinosaurs on the planet.
Its end was marked by the Cretaceous and Paleogene extinction event, a sudden mass extinction event that also marked the beginning of the Cenozoic era in which we still live today.
