LONDON — Asteroid impact gets sole credit for wiping out the dinosaurs 66 million years ago, according to new research. Scientists from the UK say the 10-km wide asteroid that made the Chicxulub crater caused dinosaur extinction without help from volcanoes.

According to the study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research team modeled the Chicxulub impact, Deccan volcanism and combinations of the two. The results suggest the asteroid impact was catastrophic enough to have destroyed the dinosaurs on its own."

According to the models, Deccan volcanism would have reduced sunlight by just 5 percent at maximum.

In comparison, estimates for the asteroid impact's effect is that fallout would have diminished sunlight by 15 to 20 percent. This figure is enough to have guaranteed the complete eradication of the non-avian dinosaurs."