Australian crater linked to mass extinction of dinosaurs

SCIENTISTS have discovered signs of a large impact crater buried off the coast of Australia that may be linked to the biggest extinction event in Earth’s history — the “Great Dying” 250 million years ago.

Many scientists have long blamed a massive meteor near Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula for wiping out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago.

What caused the far earlier and larger Permian-Triassic extinction when about 90% of all species disappeared is subject to sharper debate.