Did You Know That Dinosaurs Were Not Actually in Decline When the Asteroid Hit?

Experts now say dinosaurs would have likely continued to dominate the planet had it not been for the asteroid.

Transcript

00:00It's long been known that a giant asteroid hit the earth when dinosaurs still walked it,

00:06sending them on the path to extinction. But now researchers from the University of Bath and the

00:11Natural History Museum say, if not for that fateful impact, dinosaurs would have thrived

00:15for many more years. It's long been believed that even before the asteroid struck earth,

00:19dino populations were likely in decline. But using dinosaur family trees of a much broader

00:23variety than any previous study, and examining the evolutionary rates of those families,

00:28experts were able to conclude that the dominant species at the time would have continued to

00:31produce offspring if not for the Cretaceous Paleogene extinction event, which the researchers say they

00:36would have continued to be the quote, dominant group of land animals on the planet for years to come.

00:41Meaning if not for the giant rock falling from the sky some 66 million years ago,

00:45dinosaurs might still be walking around today. Okay, maybe not today,

00:48but it certainly could have changed the evolutionary trajectory of our planet forever.