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It wasn't an ice age or a massive meteor but tiny pests that brought down the mighty dinosaurs, according to a new thoery.
Scientists are debating the idea that diseases spread by ancient mosquitoes, mites and ticks finished off the reptiles.
Bees and other pollinators helped to promote the rapid spread of flowering plants, leading to the loss of vegetarian dinosaurs' traditional food sources. As the plant-eating dinosaurs declined, so would their predators.
The theory helps explain why dinosaurs took so long to die off, according to husband and wife team George and Roberta Poinar.
According to the most widely accepted explanation, the dinosaurs were wiped out by an asteroid or comet that smashed into the Earth off the coast of Mexico 65 million years ago.
George Poinar from Oregon State University in the US points out that they did not vanish immediately, which would have been expected from an impact scenario.
But he said emerging diseases spread by biting insects and competition with insects for plant resources was perfectly compatible with a lengthy process of extinction.
- AAP
