What Bugged the Dinosaurs?

Okay, I'm still dubious that buzzing, biting insects were anything more than a minor annoyance to dinosaurs during the Cretaceous period. But in this reasoned review of What Bugged the Dinosaurs? by George Poinar, Jr. and Roberta Poiner, a writer for London's Times Literary Supplement weighs the case carefully--not that insects rendered dinosaurs extinct overnight, but that they contributed to the slow demise of these mighty beasts.

The key piece of evidence? The Poinars have found sandflies preserved in Cretaceous amber that harbor a parasitic worm called Leishmania, which is known to prey on modern vertebrates (including people). Since the primary vertebrates on the planet 80 million years ago were dinosaurs, this is good (but not conclusive) evidence for a steady, debilitating, parasitic cycle. Maybe--just maybe--when that meteor hit 65 million years ago, a large proportion of dinosaurs were already anemic and cranky enough to give up without a fight.