Dinosaurs Might Not Be Extinct Had the Asteroid Struck Elsewhere

Had the asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago struck nearly anywhere else, some dinosaurs — and perhaps other species like this flying reptile — might have survived, according to a new study.
Dinosaurs reigned supreme for more than 160 million years. Their dynasty came to a cataclysmic close 66 million years ago when an asteroid crashed into the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico at a site now known as the Chicxulub crater, paving the way for mammals — and eventually humans — to inherit the Earth.

But had the extraterrestrial impact happened nearly anywhere else, like in the ocean or in the middle of most continents, some scientists now say it is possible dinosaurs could have survived annihilation. Only 13 percent of the Earth’s surface harbored the ingredients necessary to turn the cosmic collision into this specific mass extinction event, according to a study published Thursday in the journal Scientific Reports.

“I think dinosaurs could still be alive today,” if the asteroid had landed elsewhere, Kunio Kaiho, a paleontologist from Tohoku University in Japan and lead author on the study, said in an email.

Other researchers questioned their findings.

When the asteroid, which had a diameter about half the length of Manhattan, struck the coast of Mexico, it found a rich source of sulfur and hydrocarbons, or organic deposits like fossil fuels, according to the researchers. Scorching hot temperatures at the impact crater would have ignited the fuel. The combustion would have spewed soot and sulfur into the stratosphere in sufficient quantities to blot out the sun and change the climate, setting into motion the collapse of entire ecosystems and the extinction of three-quarters of all species on Earth.