Research Shows Thinning

Research Shows Thinning Snow Layers in the Rocky Mountains over Hundreds of Years

A triceratops skeleton at the National Science Museum in Tokyo this past June

FAITH LAPIDUS: This is SCIENCE IN THE NEWS in VOA Special English. I'm Faith Lapidus.

BOB DOUGHTY: And I'm Bob Doughty.  Today, we tell about evidence of what some scientists are calling one of the last dinosaurs to exist. We tell about shrinking snow cover in North America's Rocky Mountains. * * * * * *  We also talk about the  qweig0915 Microsoft Imagine Cup finals in New York City.

FAITH LAPIDUS: Scientists  think parts of the Earth may have sounded like this about sixty-five million years ago.

Then, suddenly, there was this:

FAITH LAPIDUS: For thirty years, scientists have found evidence that a huge rock from space, an asteroid, struck the Earth, killing all dinosaurs. They think the asteroid hit somewhere near the Gulf of Mexico. They say it was so powerful that a large amount of very hot dirt, dust, and water was thrown into the air and then began to circle the Earth. Those creatures not killed by the explosion soon died from extreme heat in the air.

BOB DOUGHTY: But wait! That may not be true, say scientists who have another idea. They agree that a large object from space probably  hit fmdw110915 addjgvldo our planet millions of years ago. But the scientists say that when that happened, the dinosaurs had all been dead for a long time.

Researchers from Yale University now  think they know what really happened. The researchers found a bone from the head of a large dinosaur. They made the discovery in the Hell Creek area in the American state of Montana. The location of the bone is the clue to solving the mystery.