Mass extinction crisis triggered expansion of dinosaurs
April 16, 2018, University of Bristol
It is commonly understood that the dinosaurs disappeared with a bang – wiped out by a great meteorite impact on the Earth 66 million years ago.
But their origins have been less understood. In a new study, scientists from MUSE—Museum of Science, Trento, Italy, Universities of Ferrara and Padova, Italy and the University of Bristol show that the key expansion of dinosaurs was also triggered by a crisis – a mass extinction that happened 232 million years ago.
In the new paper, published today in Nature Communications, evidence is provided to match the two events – the mass extinction, called the Carnian Pluvial Episode, and the initial diversification of dinosaurs.
Read more at:
https://phys.org/news/2018-04-mass-extinction-crisis-triggered-expansion.html#jCp
