According to a recent study on ancient volcanism, dinosaurs flourished after ice rather than fire.
Three-quarters of all living species abruptly vanished during one of the five big mass extinctions that occurred on Earth 201.6 million years ago. Massive volcanic eruptions that tore apart Pangaea, a large continent that at the time included nearly all of the planet's territory, occurred at the same time as the wipeout. Over the course of some 600,000 years, millions of cubic miles of lava erupted, dividing what are today North Africa, Europe, and the Americas. It signaled the end of the Triassic and the start of the Jurassic, when dinosaurs descended to rule the earth and replace Triassic animals. Although there has been much discussion over the precise causes of the End Triassic Extinction, the most prominent ones are that the carbon dioxide released by the eruptions accumulated over many millennia, bringing temperatures to levels that were unsupportable for many animals and acidifying the oceans. However, a recent study finds that the primary cause was cold rather than w...