Dinosaurs were in their prime, not in decline, when fateful asteroid hit

Paleontologists agree that a massive asteroid strike triggered the end of the dinosaurs, but a debate has persisted over the reptiles’ overall state at the time of the fateful collision.

Were non-avian dinosaurs already in decline, and the asteroid just sped up their trudge toward extinction?

Or were they thriving in the late Cretaceous, only to be snuffed out by an ill-timed space rock?

A recent study led by