Timing of asteroid final straw that wiped out weakened dinos

Dinosaurs might have survived the asteroid strike that wiped them out if it had taken place slightly earlier or later in history. Around 66 million years ago most of the world's dinosaurs were wiped out by a massive asteroid that slammed into Earth in Mexico, at a place now known as Chicxulub (pronounced chickshoo-loob). The asteroid, which was around 10 kilometres wide, is believed to have hit Earth with a force one billion times more powerful than the atomic bomb at Hiroshima. It would have blasted material at high velocity into the atmosphere, triggering a chain of events that caused a global winter, wiping out much of life on Earth in a matter of days. All these factors placed a great strain on the dinosaurs and the ecosystems they depended on to survive. The asteroid impact was the final straw that wiped out the beleaguered dinosaurs Now, researchers have carried out a study, using up-to-date fossil records and improved analytical tools, which build a clearer picture of the factors that led to the demise of these prehistoric creatures 66 million years ago. The researchers suggest that if the asteroid had struck a few million years earlier, when the range of dinosaur species was more diverse and food chains were more robust, or later, when new species had had time to evolve, then they may have survived the asteroid.