Dinosaur extinction: Poisonous plant theory puts killer asteroid in doubt

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Dinosaur extinction: Poisonous plant theory puts killer asteroid in doubt
Dinosaur extinction: Poisonous plant theory puts killer asteroid in doubt

New Delhi : A poisonous plant may have led to extinction of dinosaurs from earth, researchers have found in a new study, raising doubts over the killer asteroid theory.

According to the study, a toxic plant had killed dinosaurs much before asteroid could have done the damage.

The study, published in the journal Ideas in Ecology and Evolution, finds that the emergence of the first flowering plants, which included some poisonous species, occurs in the fossil record long before the fateful asteroid impact and just before the dinosaurs begin to decline.

It also mentions that dinosaurs may have been slow to develop the taste and differentiate between which food is dangerous for their health, resulting in them chopping the poisonous plant in good quantity.

"Though the asteroid certainly played a factor, the psychological deficit which rendered dinosaurs incapable of learning to refrain from eating certain plants had already placed severe strain on the species," Gallup said in a statement this week.

“A reason why most attempts to eliminate rats have not been successful is that they, like many other species, have evolved to cope with plant toxicity,” Gordon Gallup, professor and evolutionary psychologist said in a statement.

“When rats encounter a new food, they typically sample only a small amount; and if they get sick, they show a remarkable ability to avoid that food again because they associate the taste and smell of it with the negative reaction.”

The prime motive behind the study was to learn which species are capable of developing taste aversions. The results showed that the birds were unable to develop taste aversions.