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"Discovery Files" Features from the National Science Foundation
"Dino Double Jeopardy"
Fully produced report in MP3 format:
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(90 seconds)
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READER SCRIPT
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THE DINOSAURS' SMOKING GUN? THE "DISCOVERY FILES": NEW ADVANCES IN SCIENCE AND ENGINEERING, FROM THE NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION. SOME 65-MILLION YEARS AFTER THEY LEFT THE BUILDING, WE'RE STILL TRYING TO DETERMINE WHAT DID IN THE DINOSAURS. FOR DECADES, THE PRIME SUSPECT HAS BEEN THE HUGE ASTEROID-HIT IN THE ANCIENT YUCATAN PENINSULA, AND ITS CATACLYSMIC AFTER-EFFECTS. THAT DID SOME MAJOR DAMAGE--BUT PRINCETON UNIVERSITY RESEARCHERS BELIEVE THAT IT MAY NOT HAVE DONE THE WHOLE JOB. THEY SUSPECT THAT THE FATAL BLOW CAME, NOT ONLY FROM ABOVE, BUT FROM BELOW. ENORMOUS ERUPTIONS FROM THE VOLCANOES OF INDIA'S DECCAN TRAPS SPEWED 10 TIMES MORE CLIMATE-WARMING GASES THAN THE ASTEROID AFTERMATH IN MEXICO--CERTAINLY ENOUGH TO MOVE UP THE "USE BY" DATES OF THESE PREHISTORIC "PREY-MATES". WERE THEY "SPACED" OUT--OR WAS IT "LAVA AND LEAVE IT"? TO GET A MORE-DEFINITIVE ANSWER, THE TEAM EXAMINED FOSSILIZED MARINE PLANKTON FOUND IN LAVA LAYERS SOME 600 MILES FROM THE CENTER OF THE ERUPTIONS. ALREADY KNOWING THE PLANKTON'S AGE, THE SCIENTISTS FOUND THAT THE TIME OF THE MOST-MASSIVE ERUPTION COINCIDED WITH THE TIME OF THE DINOS' DEPARTURE. THE ASTEROID LIKELY DEALT THE FIRST BLOW--BUT THE VOLCANOES MAY HAVE COME IN FOR THE KNOCKOUT. THE "DISCOVERY FILES" COVERS PROJECTS FUNDED BY THE GOVERNMENT'S NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION: FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH BROUGHT TO YOU BY YOU! LEARN MORE AT "N-S-F"-DOT-GOV--OR ON THEIR PODCAST.
For additional "Discovery Files" features from the National Science Foundation, click here.
