Dinosaurs likely brought down by dust, not asteroid, researchers say

WASHINGTON: A new study suggests that a prolonged dust cloud may have played a larger role than previously thought in the extinction of dinosaurs approximately 66 million years ago, the United Press International (UPI) reported.A study published in Nature Geoscience on Monday suggests that finely ground dust, resulting from the impact of The Chicxulub asteroid, which was ejected into Earth’s atmosphere, may have had a more substantial impact than the impact event itself.The asteroid’s impact not only released plumes of sulfur-based gases into the atmosphere but, according to researchers, the resulting dust also significantly blocked out the sun, disrupting plant photosynthesis for years.It had been long assumed that the main killing mechanism was extreme cold following the Chicxulub impact, but of course, the cessation of photosynthesis after impact is a mechanism itself, Cem Berk Senel, lead study author and planetary scientist, told CNN.Within a few weeks and months (of the impact),