Thousands of dinosaurs died in one day at THIS place? What did trigger catastrophe? It was not asteroid, rather...

Paleontologists and researchers were shocked when they found the world's richest dinosaur graveyards buried deep in lush green forests and not in parched deserts. They stumbled upon tens of thousands of bones – all from a single, bizarre-looking species of horned dinosaur called Pachyrhinosaurus. This priceless treasure was discovered in the Pipestone Creek bone bed in northern Alberta,  Canada. 

Thousands of dinosaurs died in one day

According to the BBC, Pachyrhinosaurus dinosaurs could grow over 6m or 20ft long and weigh more than two tonnes. They migrated in thousands, making enormous ‘megaherds’. What was the reason for their death en masse? How and why did they die in such a large number in one place? Talking to the BBC, Prof Emily Bamforth, a paleontologist and curator at the Philip. J Currie Dinosaur Museum in Alberta said, "We know they all died at once in some kind of catastrophic event, and we know that whatever killed them wiped out almost every member of the herd indiscriminately – big, little, old and young." 

When did mass death of dinosaurs happen?

This mass death occurred around 72 million years ago, well before the asteroid impact that famously wiped out the dinosaurs. So, it is clear that they did not perish in the infamous catastrophic collision of an asteroid with the Earth. Bamforth said that it was a catastrophic flooding event. He said,   "Possibly from monsoon rains in the nearby mountains, or even a hurricane-like storm washed inland. It would have been similar to flash flooding events that happen today but on a massive scale."The sudden burial preserved a remarkably intact snapshot of the herd, including individuals of all ages, a single moment in time captured in extraordinary detail.

Who were dinosaurs?

Dinosaurs were a diverse group of reptiles, that first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago. They dominated terrestrial vertebrates after the Triassic–Jurassic extinction event, that took place 201.3 million years ago. They became 66 million years ago.