The extinction of the dinosaurs puzzled scientists, who attributed it to the collision of a fiery meteorite with the Earth about 66 million years ago, followed by the eruption of volcanoes and the burning of forests on our planet. But a new study suggests that dinosaurs were already on their way to extinction millions of years ago, before the supposed meteorite hit the Earth, according to an analysis of more than 1,000 pieces of fossilized eggshell of this animal discovered in central China. Study author Qiang Wang, of the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: “Dinosaurs gradually became extinct over millions of years, and did not end suddenly as a result of disasters.”
The study, conducted by a team of geologists and paleontologists working in China, shows that the biodiversity of dinosaurs began to fade at least two million years before their general extinction; At the end of the Cretaceous period, he left the birds, including their only living descendants.