Dinosaurs not in decline before asteroid hit

[Eldorado]

When the asteroid hit the Earth at the end of the Cretaceous Period some 66 million years ago, it put an end to the reign of the dinosaurs and allowed the mammals to diversify.

Recently there have been suggestions that the downfall of the dinosaurs was all but inevitable. It has been argued that the diversity of these ancient animals was declining long before the arrival of the infamous asteroid, and if the tape of life was left to play out on its own the dinosaurs would have gone extinct anyway, asteroid or not.

A new paper has come to a different conclusion, instead showing that many groups of dinosaurs were actually doing rather well right up until the end.

Full article at the UK Natural History Museum: Link