Scientist is as Scientist does. Ever the tentative bunch, scientists have reached a "final" consensus on the cause for the extinction of the dinosaurs. The final verdict?
"Combining all available data from different science disciplines led us to conclude that a large asteroid impact 65 million years ago in modern day Mexico was the major cause of the mass extinctions."--Peter Schulte of the University of Erlangen in Germany, in
this MSN article.
So the debate ending, everlasting conclusion is that the Chicxulub impact was a "major cause".
First of all, no shit. I don't think anyone has really debated that it was a factor, or even a major factor. However, this doesn't end the debate on how much other factors played in to it including supervolcanism in modern day India (the Deccan traps) or the already dwindling numbers of dinosaurs species that led up to the Chicxulub impact. So this leaves the debate right where it was before, with the Chicxulub impact being a player but also other players without a defined role.
To be fair, I have only read MSN article and not the Science article. Still, I find it funny that scientists can't stop being scientists even when trying to portray certainty in a layman fashion. The big consensus? The Chicxulub impact made the dinosaurs go extinct . . . mostly.