When it comes to the extinction of dinosaurs, we usually think about a giant asteroid hitting the earth causing mass destruction. But, a new study published in Journal Nature Ecology and Evolution suggests that the dominance of dinosaurs in all corners of the Earth was one of the prominent reasons which resulted in their extinction.
According to the study, the migration of dinosaurs across the globe was so rapid and it may have contributed a lot to their demise.
As the dinosaurs started migrating to all nooks of the planet, they quickly became cosmopolitan, and it the course of time, they ran out of the land. The dinosaur population quickly spread across the planet and it negatively impacted their capacity to produce new species, eventually contributing to their decline.
Previously, many studies have suggested that the population of dinosaurs were on the decline before they went extinct, and this new finding adds fuel to those assumptions.
"They were perhaps too successful for their own good. The dinosaurs exploded out of South America in a frenzy of movement to cover the planet. It was during this time that diverse forms evolved and eventually led to species such as the fearsome Tyrannosaurus rex, Archaeopteryx, the earliest bird and the gigantic, long-necked Diplodocus. " said Ciara O'Donovan, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Reading in England and the lead author of the study.
"This honeymoon period could not last forever though, and the dinosaurs eventually filled every available habitat on Earth," added O'Donovan.
After the population explosion, these dinosaurs gradually stopped exploring various territories, and they became masters at living in their own areas. As generations passed, these creatures lost their ability to adapt, and this lack of new species hampered the progress of dinosaurs as a whole.
When a giant asteroid hit the earth unexpectedly, the whole world was pulled to a state of darkness. Dinosaurs failed to deal with the new change, and soon they went extinct from our planet.
