Italian translation 4. February 15, 2013

Confirmed: disappearance of the dinosaurs was caused by an 
asteroid collision

Study by an international research team shows how an impact with a celestial object - that took place in the Cretaceous period in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico - and the demise of these prehistoric animals would have happened almost simultaneously.

WASHINGTON - The latest study on the topic seems to dispel all doubts: it really was an asteroid that sent the dinosaurs to extinction from our planet, and not violent, volcanic eruptions or climate change, as supposed instead for years by scholars. The confirmation comes in a study published in the prestigious periodical Science, by a team lead by the American geologist Paul Renne, of the Geochronology Center of the University of California, Berkley.

The scientists have demonstrated convincingly the theory that the dinosaurs' extinction was caused by an asteroid. An innovative research method shows how the impact from a celestial object - and the demise of these prehistoric animals - took place almost at the same time. Since the 1980s, American researchers have linked the giant reptiles to an enormous asteroid impact, which occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period in the Yucatan peninsula, Mexico. However, this hypothesis has never been proved. "Up till now, the problem was that the method of calculation had a margin error one in a hundred. In a period of 66 million years, that means 660 thousand, which is rather vague," stated the professor of paleo-oceanography Heiko Palike, from the research centre Marum at the University of Bremen, one of the authors of the publication in Science.

From 'La Repubblica', 7 February, 2013

(www.repubblica.it/scienze/2013/02/07/news/dinosauri_meteoriti-52156831/)

PW 15/2/13