Did a meteor wipe out the non-avian dinosaurs?

[Tank]

Two articles, one that apparently indicates the 'three meter gap' never was and that some dinosaurs survived the impact event that occurred at the end of the cretaceous.

Last Dinosaur Before Mass Extinction Discovered

ScienceDaily (July 13, 2011) — A team of scientists has discovered the youngest dinosaur preserved in the fossil record before the catastrophic meteor impact 65 million years ago. The finding indicates that dinosaurs did not go extinct prior to the impact and provides further evidence as to whether the impact was in fact the cause of their extinction.

Researchers from Yale University discovered the fossilized horn of a ceratopsian -- likely a Triceratops, which are common to the area -- in the Hell Creek formation in Montana last year. They found the fossil buried just five inches below the K-T boundary, the geological layer that marks the transition from the Cretaceous period to the Tertiary period at the time of the mass extinction that took place 65 million years ago...

Dinosaurs Survived Mass Extinction by 700,000 Years, Fossil Find Suggests

ScienceDaily (Jan. 28, 2011) — University of Alberta researchers determined that a fossilized dinosaur bone found in New Mexico confounds the long established paradigm that the age of dinosaurs ended between 65.5 and 66 million years ago.

The U of A team, led by Larry Heaman from the Department of Earth and Atmospheric Sciences, determined the femur bone of a hadrosaur as being only 64.8 million years old. That means this particular plant eater was alive about 700,000 years after the mass extinction event many paleontologists believe wiped all non-avian dinosaurs off the face of earth, forever...

Interesting how science continues to refine its techniques and in the light of new information refine the conclusions the evidence suggests. Ever since I heard about the impact extinction theory 35 years ago I have been sceptical of how an impact could be so selective in it's extinction profile.

[OldGit]

They found the fossil buried just five inches below the K-T boundary..

Whoa!  That must make it earlier, not later.  ???

[Tank]

They found the fossil buried just five inches below the K-T boundary..

Whoa!  That must make it earlier, not later.  ???

Yes, before the impact, but a lot closer to it than previous fossils had been found. Thus it indicates that there were dinosaurs alive close (in time) to the impact. The lack of fossils close to the boundary had led to speculation that dinosaurs had already died out before the impact because off other, unknown, reasons.

[OldGit]

^ OK, gotcha, Tank.