Scientists Hunt for Meteor Crash Clues in 200-Million-Year-Old Murder Mystery

Aaron L. Gronstal, Astrobiology Magazine

Date: 29 December 2011 Time: 07:00 AM ET

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During a break in the mist, a rainbow drops over Northern Ireland's Antrim Coast, where scientists are searching for clues about what caused a mass extinction 200 million years ago. CREDIT: Aaron L. Gronstal View full size image

Mass extinctions are a relatively common theme in the history and evolution of life on Earth, and the most famous one is the extinction of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago. A plethora of research has been conducted to determine how the dinosaur era ended, generating theories of massive volcanic eruptions, catastrophic climate change and giant impactors from space.
However, much less is known about another remarkable extinction event that occurred roughly 135 million years earlier — an extinction that may have set the stage for the age of dinosaurs .

MORE: http://www.space.com/14069-mass-extinction-earth-impact-triassic-jurassic.html

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