We will never know exactly what happened 65 million years ago, but we can come close.
Most scientists agree that an asteroid or comet put a dramatic
exclamation point at the end of the Cretaceous period. It is also widely acknowledged
that continents shifted, sea levels dropped, and volcanoes erupted across Earth's
surface. Most paleontologists would even grant that mammals probably competed to some
extent with dinosaurs.
With all of these pieces to the puzzle in hand, the question
remains: What role did these phenomena play in the extinction of the dinosaurs?
While the answer to this question remains a mystery, the question
itself is far more refined than the one scientists were asking just a few decades ago.
We're getting closer to knowing what killed the dinosaurs.
And so, for now, we can be satisfied maintaining several viable
hypotheses. It's likely that one of them -- or all of them in combination -- holds
the answer. In time, with more evidence, we will undoubtedly get closer to knowing
for sure.
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