I'm Ira Flato, and you're listening to Science Friday.

Today on the show, we're dynos on their way out before the asteroid hit.

New research says, maybe not.

This is why paleontology is fun.

It's a detective game, and sometimes new evidence comes along and tells us that some of our

cherished ideas were incorrect.

One of the biggest debates in the dinosaur world is what was happening right before they went extinct.

Were they already declining, or would they have thrived if it wasn't for that darn asteroid?

Well, two new studies shed light on this question, and we have their co-authors here with us now.

Dr. Steve Broussadi, paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh, Dr. Lindsay Zano,

division head of paleontology at the North Carolina Museum of Natural Sciences

based in Raleigh, North Carolina. Their studies were published in the journal Science and

Nature, respectively. Welcome back to both of you to Science Friday. Thank you, Ira. Always a pleasure.

Thank you. You're welcome. Steve, this ongoing argument in the paleontology world, whether or not dinosaurs were on their way out before their extinction.

I think it's now rivaling.

Do you come here often as a standard opening line when paleontologists get together?

Where is the story?

What does that story come from?

Give us the origins of that.

I think in many ways it goes back 200 years to when the first dinosaurs were named, when the first

giant bones were recognized by scientists working in universities and museums, recognizes

belonging to these giant extinct reptiles.

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