--- title: Dinosaurs: Volcanoes May Have helped Kill Them description: A new study suggests that the extinction-causing asteroid might have had an accomplice canonical: https://time.com/3629647/dinosaurs-volcanoes-extinction/ author: Michael Lemonick article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2014-12-11T20:03:43.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T08:00:13.582Z article:section: Science og:title: Here's What Really Killed the Dinosaurs og:description: It wasn't just an asteroid og:url: https://time.com/3629647/dinosaurs-volcanoes-extinction/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt781ab16dc446d22a/69876e8f524fc06be1deb61f/dinosaur-volcano.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 2912 og:image:height: 1638 og:image:alt: dinosaur volcano og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Here's What Really Killed the Dinosaurs twitter:description: It wasn't just an asteroid twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt781ab16dc446d22a/69876e8f524fc06be1deb61f/dinosaur-volcano.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Here's What Really Killed the Dinosaurs > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=6a1ca2ac-e05d-4377-888e-a9a92170e429&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Resurrecting Dinosaurs: From Fossil to Museum Floor [Watch (HLS stream): Resurrecting Dinosaurs: From Fossil to Museum Floor](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/KNvNcNxy.m3u8) (5:18)  _Published 2011-05-11. The Dinosaur Institute lab team at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County prepares for an unprecedented new dinosaur display_ by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-d-lemonick/) ## Michael Lemonick Dec 11, 2014 8:03 PM UTC  Tungurahua volcano eruption Tungurahua volcano eruption Elena Kalistratova—Getty Images by [Michael Lemonick](https://time.com/author/michael-d-lemonick/) ## Michael Lemonick Dec 11, 2014 8:03 PM UTC At the start of the 1980s, the question of what forced dinosaurs and huge numbers of other creatures to become extinct 65 million years ago [was still a mystery](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,967553,00.html). By the decade’s end, that mystery was solved: a comet or asteroid had slammed into Earth, throwing so much sun-blocking dust into the air that the planet plunged into a deep-freeze. The discovery of a massive impact crater off the coast of Mexico, of just the right age, [pretty much sealed the deal](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,973278,00.html) in most scientists’ minds. But a second global-scale catastrophe was happening at much the same time: a series of ongoing volcanic eruptions that dwarf anything humans have ever seen. They were so unimaginably powerful that they left nearly 200,000 square miles (518,000 sq. km) of what’s now India buried in volcanic basalt up to a mile and a half thick. And the gases and particulate matter spewed out by those eruptions, argue at least some scientists, [could have played a big role](http://content.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1682273,00.html) in the dinosaurs’ doom as well. How big a role, however, depends on exactly when the eruptions began and how long they lasted, and a [new report in _Scienc_](http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaa0118)[_e_](http://www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aaa0118)goes a long way toward answering that question. “We can now say with confidence,” says Blair Schoene, a Princeton geologist and lead author of the paper, “that the eruptions started 250,000 years before the extinction event, and lasted for a total of 750,000 years.” And that, he says, strengthens the idea that the eruptions could have contributed to the mass extinction of multiple species. Schoene and his co-authors don’t claim volcanoes alone wiped out the dinosaurs; only that they changed the climate enough to put ecosystems under stress, setting them up for the final blow. “We don’t know the exact mechanism,” he admits. Volcanoes emit carbon dioxide, which could have triggered an intense burst of global warming, but they also emit sulfur dioxide, which could have caused [global cooling](http://science.time.com/2014/02/25/volcanoes-slow-climate-change/). “What we do know,” Schoene says, “is that earlier mass extinctions were caused by volcanic eruptions alone.” The new dates, he and his co-authors believe, will help scientists understand what role these volcanoes played in the dinosaurs’ demise. If there was such a role, that is, and despite this new analysis, plenty of paleontologists still doubt it seriously. The dating of the eruptions, based on widely accepted uranium-lead measurement techniques, is not an issue, says Brian Huber, of the Smithsonian Institution. “That part of the science is great,” he says. “It moves things forward.” But the link between eruptions and the disappearance of species, he thinks, is invalid. “The case of the mass extinctions being caused by an impact is overwhelming,” says Huber. “One of the wonderful things about these arguments is that they’ve forced us to look really carefully at the fossil evidence, on land and at sea. We’ve accumulated a really detailed data set.” And those data, Huber says, make it clear that the extinction rate for the 250,000 years leading up to the asteroid impact wasn’t especially large. Then, at the time of the impact: whammo. The idea that volcanoes played a significant role in this extinction event keeps coming up [every so often](http://content.time.com/time/health/article/0,8599,1894225,00.html), and in Huber’s view, “the argument has gotten very tiresome. I no longer feel the need to put any energy into it. It’s from a minority arguing against overwhelming evidence.” For onlookers, that might seem harsh—not to mention overconfident. Sometimes a vocal scientific minority turns out to be right in its challenge to the scientific mainstream, as when Alfred Wegener argued, to much ridicule, that continents move around the Earth. And sometimes it’s dead wrong—[Sir Fred Hoyle’s futile campaign against the Big Bang theory](http://content.time.com/time/subscriber/article/0,33009,824356,00.html), for example. In both cases, however, it was the accumulation of evidence that ultimately vindicated one argument and torpedoed the other. So far, the volcanic impact people have most of the torpedoes on their side. _Read next:_ [_Newly Discovered Fossils Reveal Goofy-Looking Dinosaur_](http://time.com/3533257/newly-discovered-fossils-reveal-goofy-looking-dinosaur/?xid=time%5Freadnext) ## Transcript Right now, we're doing a little bit of metalwork. We're gonna heat some some of this pipe and rod up. And just, just bend it ever so slightly. You might think you're in an auto body shop or maybe even an artist's studio. Is that your expertise, Carl? Is that your, one of your favorite things to do? [ NOISE ] But this is actually the workshop of the Dinosaur Institute of the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles county. You want to show it right now and see if it will, yeah, right there. These are the bone casts of a Carnotaurus, a meat eating cousin of the Terranasaurus Rex. And the aluminium armature of it's tail is giving Carl [ UNKNOWN ] and Doug Goodreau a little bit of a headache this morning. It's slightly off to the side but I think you did it, I think you did it pretty much. [ NOISE ] The Dinosaur Institute is at the tail end of a six year long project to create a new 15, 000 square foot dinosaur hall, at the museum. The arrangement in individual poses of these dinosaurs have been carefully planned. [ SOUND ] For the Carnotaurus. Doug and Carl are working to get the tail to drop exactly 25 inches off the seal. Well, now we have to get that secured and then let it drop and stand on its own and then we'll know [ SOUND ] how much it drapes. It's just about right. With only three months to go, it's getting down to the wire. These exhibits are certainly a once in a, in a lifetime. And I doubt I will do another one on this magnitude in my life. Dr. Luis Chiappe is the director at the Dinosaur Institute. At the moment, we have already some major mounts in place. We are fabricating a portion of the exhibit. We're filming. We're writing labels. We're doing all sorts of things. I think we're creating probably the best dinosaur exhibit ever. I mean, this is an exhibit that will be visited by tens of millions of people. I cannot imagine anything else that would have a more lasting impact in our field and in our community. The museum started collecting fossils over a hundred years ago. And this collection will be the majority of specimens on display at the new dinosaur hall. But the Dinosaur Institute team excavates and adds many fossils to it's collection every year. Doug Goodreau is the institute's lab supervisor and leads many of the excavations. Biggest bone in your body? Femur. Femur. You got it. So this is, this is gonna attach to your hip. And that's your need. Our job encompasses everything from digging up the things that you see on display all the way to doing the mounting, moulding, casting of various specimens. And just building the collection of dinosaur material. He originally came to L. A. for makeup and effects work in the film industry. And started volunteering at the museum. He has a very unique skill set. I was working full time as a a licensed embalmer as well. So I have a mortuary background and I do a lot of restorative art and that includes facial reconstruction, and repairing of accident victims so they're. So there viewable. so, and then, in Los Angeles you have a lot of volumes, they had a lot of, practice with that. So, if you include, some sort of more trade background, in, in [ INAUDIBLE ] it's helped. But you just don't have the smelly flesh part to deal with, just the bones. After digging up, casting, transporting, unwrapping, cleaning and mounting it can take some serious time to just get one fossil ready for display. In the case of Thomas the T Rex it took a total of eight years to excavate, and prepare him for the dinosaur hall. I guess it's kind of a nail biting ride coming back cuz you're usually overloading a UHaul with all this material that you got. One time we had the brakes go out, because a big Tricertops pelvis Just that element alone. Loaded up with all the plaster and extra dirt around it cuz it's not cleaned up. All the plaster and water weight, over, over did it. And then the breaks went out on the truck, as we were coming off the freeway. so, just getting, one field season worth of work could get trashed if you're not careful. So, once you, have all those elements back and they actually get cleaned up. And nobody destroys anything or loses anything. And then you finally see it mounted and on display and that's, that's really exciting and rewarding. It's a very good feeling. << So now this tail should drape just about 25 inches below the ceiling, which would be out of harm's way, humans. We're in each. We're ready. Should be right on the money. You all hold a kid up there and he can hang from it and we'll bring it down. With the Carnotaurus in good shape, the team can move on to other work. By the time this exhibit opens, there will be over 300 fossils on display in the new dinosaur hall. For Time Video, this is Vanessa Kaneshiro in Los Angeles. 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