In the late Cretaceous, dinosaurs ruled the earth. They were the most diverse and widespread land animals on the planet.
“Most major terrestrial niches were occupied by dinosaurs, particularly toward the end of the Cretaceous,” says Chris Torres, an Ohio University post-doctoral researcher and paleontologist.
Dinosaurs were not monolithic. They were ferocious predators, horned mega-herbivores, feathered scavengers and pint-sized foragers.
65 million years ago, the vast majority of these ancient reptiles disappeared from the fossil record. It’s a mystery that has fascinated scientists and schoolchildren for decades (as well as school children that go on to become scientists, like Torres).
Dinosaurs were not the only victims of the extinction. More than 60 percent of species perished globally. In the oceans, entire genera of invertebrates died out. On land, gymnosperms and angiosperms, groups that include most modern trees, barely survived.
The cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) extinction or Cretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) extinction, ...
