Over the years, researchers have spun off numerous twists of the K/T Extinction Event, the meteor/comet impact 65 million years ago that wiped out the dinosaurs. Now, we can add yet another novel variant to the list: a New Zealand scientist theorizes that the massive impact vaporized a huge underground deposit of oil, which subsequently rained down on the planet with disastrous results. (Contrary to the common folk belief, oil doesn't come from dinosaurs, but from microscopic organisms that covered the earth hundreds of millions of years before the development of terrestrial life).

It's too soon to tell if this theory has any legs, but the image of an Anatotitan asphyxiating under a sticky coat of oil resonates down to the present day, when even a small oil slick can kill thousands of innocent animals.