How dinosaurs conquered the world by doing the unthinkable
Dinosaurs are often thought of as creatures that thrived in warm climates and lush tropical forests. But now, new research is challenging this idea: Instead, dinosaurs experienced freezing temperatures, which eventually allowed them to rule in the Jurassic. The study’s lead author, paleontologist Paul Olsen, ventured into China’s Junggar basin in 2016, an area rich in dinosaur fossils and footprints. On day one, and on their first stop, Olsen’s team came across something much rougher than sand and gravel. It seemed very unusual to Olsen. “We didn’t budge for three hours debating what this was,” Olsen, who led the study published in the journal Science Advances to Mashable. “The whole dinosaur picture was underdeveloped. They were primarily cold-adapted animals.” The research team narrowed down the strange deposits to “ice raft debris,” which are gravel-bearing sediments that formed about 206 million years ago. (Ice accumulates in the water next to land, eventually transporting and