An abrupt end to the saurian saga

10 June 2000

DINOSAURS really did go out with a bang, say researchers in Wisconsin. While
many palaeontologists think a meteorite impact 65 million years ago led to the
great reptiles’ abrupt demise, others claim that the creatures were already on
the verge of extinction, citing a supposed lack of dinosaur fossils in rocks
laid down in the 2 million years preceding the impact. But a team led by Peter
Sheehan of the Milwaukee Public Museum has found several fossils in this layer
in the Hell Creek Formation in the upper Great Plains of North America. “The
evidence is consistent with an abrupt…