A death shroud swept over the planet 66 million years ago, after a giant asteroid crashed into Earth, leaving a crater more than 110 miles wide on the Yucatán Peninsula centered on what is now the Mexican town of Chicxulub. This impact launched more than 12,000 cubic miles of material into the air, which caused a winter that lasted for decades and acidified the oceans. When the shroud lifted, three-quarters of all the species on Earth, including many dinosaurs, were dead.

Yet, with the benefit of hindsight, the fallout wasn’t all bad.

According to research conducted by an international collaboration of three dozen scientists, the mass extinction that marked the end of the Cretaceous period may have allowed the oceans to soften