MEXICO CITY, April 14 — An international research team is drilling nearly 1,500 metres into the Chicxulub crater off the coast of Mexico.

The deep crater caused by an asteroid impact 66 million years ago is believed to have wiped out most large animals and plants, killing the dinosaurs.

Dr Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi, Geologist at the Geophysics Institute at the National Autonomous University of Mexico, said:

“The impact at Chicxulub is one of these events that marks the evolution of life on earth. The impact caused the extinction of some 75 per cent of species that existed in that period and literally three of every four species are wiped out due to the effects of the impact. It marks the transition of what colloquially, we know are the era of the dinosaurs to the era of the mammals.”

If the team is able to access rocks underneath the ocean's sediment, they'll be able to learn more about the scope and the environmental impact.

They also hope to get a better understanding of what's called the “peak ring,” that formed at the centre of the impact where the asteroid struck. — Reuters

A fossil of a dinosaur is seen in an undated picture from the US Immigration and Customs Enforcements (ICE) released April 6, 2016. — Reuters pic