For a long time, scientists have hypothesized that the extinction of dinosaurs was related to the collision between the asteroid Chicxulub and Earth.

Recently, for the first time, archaeologists found fossil remains of a dinosaur whose time of death coincided with the date of an asteroid impact.

Professor Paul Barrett, Natural History Museum in London, England, said the dinosaur leg fossil belongs to an individual in the genus Thescelosaurus.

It is estimated that the collision occurred about 66 million years ago. The Thescelosaurus fossil lies near a large space rock fragment believed to be the culprit responsible for the death.

Archaeologists discovered fossils at the Tanis site in North Dakota, USA, which is known as the dinosaur cemetery.

This is the first discovery of dinosaur victims from an asteroid impact that left a 150 km wide impact crater in the Gulf of Mexico today.

Dinosaur fossils died in an asteroid impact

The collision is suspected to be the culprit that caused the end of the era of dinosaurs and the rise of mammals.

“We have the first evidence of dinosaurs being killed by asteroid impacts at the end of the Cretaceous period,” said Robert DePalma, an archaeologist at the University of Manchester.

According to experts, the discovery of dinosaur fossils on the day of destruction was extraordinary. Individuals who were not directly killed by the collision could not survive because the incident caused a huge cloud of dust and soot, causing global climate change. This is responsible for the eradication of 75% of animal and plant species.

When the asteroid collided with Earth, it shook the continental plate and caused large waves in rivers, lakes, and oceans.

‘Dinosaur Graveyard’ Tanis discovered in 2008 but it was not until 2019 that it was announced to the world along with discoveries of dinosaur bones, fossils of marine reptiles, feathers, eggs …

Tanis is about 2,896 km from the site of the meteorite impact in the Gulf of Mexico today, off the coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. Seismic waves emitted from the asteroid impact reached Tanis within minutes.