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Global warming, caused in part by erupting volcanoes, may have caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, according to an international team of scientists and researchers.

The birth of this theory flies in the face of the prevailing ones. The impact of a large asteroid has been the primary recipient of blame for the dinosaurs' mass extinction. The Discovery Channel reports:

Paleontologists concluded that the disappearance of 90 percent of all marine species and 75 percent of land plants and animals at the boundary between the Permian and Triasic periods was caused by atmospheric warming from of greenhouse gases triggered by erupting volcanoes

"The marine extinction and the land extinction appear to be simultaneous, based on the geochemical evidence we found," said University of Washington paleontologist Peter Ward, lead author of the paper.

"Animals and plants both on land and in the sea were dying at the same time, and apparently from the same causes: too much heat and too little oxygen," he said, adding that there was little evidence of a sudden catastrophe caused by an asteroid.

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