We know why the dinosaurs died—a massive asteroid hit the Yucatan Peninsula forming the Chicxulub crater—but how they died is still the subject of debate. While Team Ice has seemed to have an edge in recent years, Team Fire is coming in hot with a new study published in the Journal of Geophysical Research: Biogeosciences. Everest-sized asteroid responsible for the Chicxulub crater hit, it displaced an enormous plume of vaporized material that spread into the upper atmosphere. “Without fine dust, this still wouldn’t have been a good day for dinosaurs. “With the fine dust, the Cretaceous animals received 17 times the dose of thermal radiation that is 100 percent lethal to humans.