In the past half billion years of Earth’s history, there have been five widely-accepted major mass extinctions, but new findings published recently in Science Advances suggest that there may have been another—one that created conditions that allowed dinosaurs to take over the world.

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A volcanic eruption may have helped the dinosaurs take over

The newly proposed mass extinction, which occurred during a period of time 233 million years ago called the Carnian Pluvial Episode (CPE), resulted in the loss of 33 percent of marine genera (the next-highest level of taxonomy above species) according to the study. Large volcanic eruptions in western Canada likely caused the event by emitting large amounts of greenhouse gases, causing rapid global warming and a period of increased rainfall that lasted roughly one million years. Afterward, climate conditions rapidly changed from rainy to arid, which, coupled with the increased plant growth