Death of the dinosaurs. Artist's impression of a pair of giant dinosaurs being startled from their sleep by the blazing fireball of an incoming asteroid or giant meteor. The dinosaurs died out 65 million years ago, along with thousands of other life-forms, at the end of the Cretaceous Period. The theory that the mass extinction was caused by the impact of an extraterrestrial body has recently received support from geological evidence, though numerous other explanations for the death of the dinosaurs have been put forward.
When the dinosaur-killing asteroid struck Earth, most of the impact energy was directed outwards and upwards into space. Only 1% of the force traveled down into the ground, but it was enough to ring the planet like a bell and wipeout species around the globe.
Only those creatures able to seek shelter from the intense heat on the surface survived.
