Asteroids destroyed earth life twice

A GIANT asteroid decimated life on Earth not once but twice, according to new geological evidence published yesterday.

Scientists say the findings suggest that a space rock smashing into the Earth accounted for the biggest mass extinction the world has ever known.

Over 90% of all marine life and about 70% of land animals and plants vanished at the boundary between the Permian and Triassic periods 251 million years ago. The catastrophe cleared the way for the rise of the dinosaurs and mammals. Scientists are fairly certain that an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary 65 million years ago.