Study rejects dinosaur extinction theory

PRINCETON, N.J., May 5 (UPI) -- U.S. geoscientist Gerta Keller says she's compiled conclusive evidence that a meteorite did not wipe out the dinosaurs.

Keller, a Princeton University professor, said she and her research team have disproved the popular theory that an asteroid eliminated the dinosaurs about 65 million years ago. She said her examinations at several new sites have produced biotic evidence -- the fossilized traces of plants and animals -- indicating a massive die-off did not occur directly after an asteroid strike, but occurred much later.

Keller said her studies of rock formations at many sites in the United States, Mexico and India have led her to conclude volcanoes, not a vast meteorite, were the more likely culprits in the demise of Earth's giant reptiles.

"Careful documentation of results that are reproducible and verifiable will uncover what really happened," Keller said. "This study takes an important step in that direction."

The study that included Thierry Adatte of the University of Lausanne in Switzerland; Alfonso Pardo Juez of the CES Fundacion San Valero in Spain, and JoseeLopes-Oliva of the University of Nueva Leon in Mexico appears in the April 27 issue of the Journal of the Geological Society of London.