Living Dinosaurs

As far as dominating a planet goes, the dinosaurs did an amazing job. The Age of Dinosaurs lasted for nearly 200 million years—something like a thousand times as long as modern humans have existed.

Many of them grew to enormous sizes, leaving them without natural predators of their own, perpetuating a virtuous size cycle. There were lots of smaller, more adaptable dinosaurs, too. They were diverse and resilient.

In order to survive for so long as a group, dinosaurs laid eggs with a hard shell. This meant they could be laid on land, which proved to be a major advantage over amphibians.

Suddenly, 66 million years ago, a city-sized asteroid ripped through space at tens of thousands of miles per hour, and smashed onto the surface of the earth. The same energy as billions of nukes was released instantly, leaving a crater in the ground wider than most US states.

The impact site was decimated in a bright flash, but the entire planet was in for utter chaos. Tsunamis and earthquakes the likes …