Dinosaurs survived for at least 700,000 years after meteorite collision

[The Straight Story]

Dinosaurs survived for at least 700,000 years after meteorite collision

Many palaeontologists believe that all non-avian dinosaurs disappeared almost 66 million years ago - after debris from the meteorite blocked out the sun and caused extreme climate conditions, killing vegetation worldwide.

But new tests on a fossilised bone of a plant eating dinosaur discovered in New Mexico found that it was only 64.8 million years old - meaning that it was alive about 700,000 years after it was thought to have died.

A team at the University of Alberta, Canada, used a new "direct-dating" method called U-Pb (uranium lead) dating to establish the age of a hadrosaur's thigh bone much more accurately.

A laser beam removes minute particles of the fossil, which then undergo radioactive dating - which allows the age of the fossil bone to be determined and can even tell what type of food the dinosaur ate.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/dinosaurs/8288863/Dinosaurs-survived-for-at-least-700000-years-after-meteorite-collision.html

[FourScore]

1. Interesting. n/t

[cbdo2007]

2. Cool. I like dinosaur fossils. They're pretty amazing...

[IDemo]

3. Up next: creationists will "prove" that direct-dating method called U-Pb is wrong n/t

[backwoodsbob]

4. couldn't it just as easily be argued

that the *direct dating* method proves the originally accepted asteroid date is wrong and that 64.8 million years ago is the time of *the hit* ?

[InvisibleTouch]

6. Very likely.

The "impact winter extinction" is pretty well established - though given that birds survived, it wouldn't surprise me if a few small species of other dinosaurs hung on for a while also. The operative word being "small," though.

[bhikkhu]

8. I imagine they would have calibrated it to the iridium layer...

which would give them the initial baseline to work from, but then I haven't seen the data myself.

I would guess it is accurate though, as there is no lack of research on the point in time, and the consequences of going public with a simple error would be immediate and unfortunate.

[backwoodsbob]

9. I'm not saying they are wrong

they are a hell of a lot smarter than me.

It's just that I was hit with that thought as I read the OP

[neverforget]

5. Not true! The Earth is only 6000 years old!

:sarcasm:

[entanglement]

7. In the past, apparently "post K-T" dinosaur fossil finds turned out to be pre K-T in reality

So it will be interesting to see if this study holds up to closer scrutiny.

[DainBramaged]

10. 1 in 3 Texans believe that dinosaurs and humans shared the Earth at the same time

http://current.com/news/92163106_1-in-3-texans-believe-that-dinosaurs-and-humans-shared-the-earth-at-the-same-time.htm

[Teaser]

11. survived longer than that

if you count birds.