Wednesday, May 06, 2009
Scientists in the United States are discounting the widely believed theory that 65 million years ago dinosaurs were brought to extinction when an asteroid collided with the Earth. Recently, experts discovered that a few creatures survived for another 500,000 years in what is today New Mexico and Colorado.
The proof is in the bones: scientists used carbon dating on the newly discovered bones found in the remote San Juan Basin, and discovered that the bones were a half-a-million years younger than any other dinosaur bones previously uncovered.
While some experts claim this is a great paleontological breakthrough, others are not convinced. “This is a controversial conclusion, and many paleontologists will remain skeptical,” held David Polly, editor of the Palaeontologia Electronica, the journal in which the scholarly article by James Fassett of the U.S. Geological Survey was recently published.
-Erika K. Solanki
Dinosaurs ‘Survived in a Remote ‘Lost World’ for Half a Million Years Before Extinction’ (by Richard Alleyne, Telegraph UK)
New Geochronologic and Stratographic Evidence Confirms Dinosaurs in The San Juan Basin, New Mexico, and Colorado (by James E. Fassett, Palaeontologia Electronica)
U.S. Geological Survey (AllGov)
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