Dinosaurs ‘on way out’ 50m years before meteor

Dinosaurs were plodding down the path to extinction millions of years before the meteor impact that is widely believed to have wiped them out, say scientists.

Until now, most experts have believed dinosaurs were flourishing just before disaster struck in the form of a huge asteroid or comet that smashed into the Earth.

New research suggests more dinosaur species were vanishing than new ones were emerging up to 50m years earlier.

Giant long-necked plant-eaters such as diplodocus were lost at the fastest rate, while meat-eating relatives of tyrannosaurus rex were in more gradual decline.

The scientists, whose findings are based on sophisticated statistical analysis and fossil evidence, believe the meteor impact 66m years ago finished off a process already well under way.

Lead researcher Manabu Sakamoto, from the University of Reading, said: “While the asteroid impact is still the prime candidate for the dinosaurs’ final disappearance, it is clear that they were already past their prime in an evolutionary sense. Our work is ground-breaking in that, once again, it will change our understanding of the fate of these mighty creatures.

“While a sudden apocalypse may have been the final nail in the coffin, something else had already been preventing dinosaurs from evolving new species as fast as old species were dying out.”