For over 53 million years Earth was ruled by dinosaurs, until their demise at the hands of an asteroid. But how did they become ‘top dogs’ in the first place? A new study suggests that a ‘volcanic winter’ eradicated most of the other creatures on the planet, 201.6 million years ago.
During this fourth mass extinction that concluded the Triassic period, three quarters of living species disappeared. Massive volcanic eruptions split apart the supercontinent Pangaea and lava flowed for 600,000 years.