"Dinosaurs went on to dominate for the next 135 million years," he said, noting that their extinction is now commonly attributed to the ecological effects of yet another comet or asteroid impact this one about 65 million years ago.

Besides his work at Rutgers, Kent is associated with the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of Columbia University, as are his co-authors E.C. Rainforth and P.E. Olsen. Olsen's earlier research about Triassic-Jurassic transitions inspired the project. Other co-authors include Koeberl and H. Huber of the University of Vienna, H.-D. Sues of the Royal Ontario Museum, A. Montanari of the Osservatorio Geologio do Coldigiocom in Italy, S.J. Fowell of the University of Alaska-Fairbanks, and M.J. Szajna and B.W. Hartline, fossil collectors of Reading, Pa.

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Contact: Bill Haduch
bhaduch@ur.rutgers.edu
732-932-7084
Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey
16-May-2002