Did Dinosaurs Flame Out?

Challenging conventional theory, new research suggests the dinosaurs may have been scorched into extinction by an asteroid collision 65 million years ago that unleashed 10 billion times more power than the Hiroshima atomic bomb.

“Essentially, if you were exposed you were broiled alive,” said atmospheric physicist Brian Toon of the University of Colorado.

Scientists generally accept that the dinosaurs were killed by an asteroid that slammed into Mexico’s Yucatan peninsula.

Toon, the coauthor of a study published in the Geological Society of America Bulletin in May, reckons creatures near ground zero were vaporized, and those in the Caribbean and southern U.S. drowned in 330-foot tsunamis from the asteroid impact.

Then, a column of red-hot steam and dust soared thousands of miles into space and fell back toward Earth within a few hours, turning the heavens into hell, said Toon, whose research was based on mathematical and computer models.