China finds new possible cause for dinosaur extinction

(ECNS) -- Chinese scientists have discovered that a sustained decline in dinosaur diversity happened in the Late Cretaceous period through studies on dinosaur egg fossils.

Researchers assessed 1,000 fossilized dinosaur eggs and eggshells from the Shanyang Basin in central China's Shaanxi Province, and identified a decline in dinosaur diversity.

"The general view of dinosaur extinction is that asteroids hit the earth or that volcanic eruptions wiped them out. These are both external factors. But now we can see that, in fact, before the extinction of dinosaurs, their diversity had decreased a lot. The influence of internal factors may be more important as a factor driving extinction," Wang Qiang said.