New Research Suggests Dinosaurs Met a Much Faster End Than We Thought

While most scientists are in agreement that the age of the dinosaurs came to an end 66 million years ago, the exact timeline of the extinction remains a hot topic of discussion. New research is supporting the idea that the dinosaurs died within hours of a massive asteroid strike rather than suffering a slow death. Here is what the latest research indicates.

New Research Supports Idea of Instant Dinosaur Mass Extinction

How long did it take for dinosaurs to die off after the six-mile-wide Chicxulub asteroid slammed into the part of the world that is now Mexico? In the past, many paleontologists believed that the dinosaurs that used to roam the Earth died a slow death after the dust generated from the asteroid created a massive cloud that blocked the sunlight. However, a body of research now supports the hypothesis that the extinction might have happened in a matter of mere hours.

New evidence recently released and published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences suggests that the dinosaurs quickly died after wildfires ignited by the falling debris from the wildfires spread across the planet. According to Brandon Johnson, a Purdue University planetary scientist and study co-author, “We’re in the realm where we might be essentially killing off everything within that first hour or two."

The sheer size of Chicxulub would have quickly extinguished all signs of life within a wide zone of its impact along the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary. Chicxulub was hurtling toward Earth at a speed of 12 miles per second, resulting in the impact of more than one billion times the strength of the historic atomic blasts at Hiroshima and Nagasaki.

The impact produced a 62-mile-wide and 19-mile-deep hole, triggering tsunamis that reached two miles in height and winds of up to 620 mph. The 25 trillion metric tons of debris fell on Earth, creating fiery missiles that rained down across the planet and set the land on fire.

The latest theories suggest that the leftover dust generated a thick blanket of rock vapor that acted as a blanket, heating the surface of the ground. This heat would have been significant enough to instantly wipe out life forms, resulting in the mass extinction.

Johnson and the other researchers believe that the forest fires were the primary culprit for most of the deaths that happened within hours. However, they noted that they need more data to confirm this idea. The bulk of the concrete wildfire evidence is located in North America, the site of the Chicxulub strike. This means that there were fewer fires moving farther away from the point of impact.

Regardless of how long it took for the dinosaurs to completely die off, what all scientists agree on is that the Chicxulub asteroid strike was the beginning of the end for life on Earth for a long time.