It’s almost 40 years since scientists discovered what wiped out the dinosaurs: an asteroid hitting Earthnear modern-dayMexico. That was it, or so we thought. A paper published today in Science further supports an alternative hypothesis: that catastrophic events following the impact could have helped cause the end of the dinosaurs and many other forms of life.

This builds on earlier work – including some published last year – suggesting a connection between the asteroid impact, increased volcanic eruptions, and the mass extinction event. Sudden impact Back in 1980, the American experimental physicist Luis Alvarez, his geologist son Walter and their colleagues…

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