Science

...In the new study, the researchers also found signs in the same set of samples of an extended fungal bloom tens of thousands of years before the asteroid impact. This coincides with intense volcanic activity in what is now India and supports the idea that volcanism was a factor in the mass extinctions in that period.

Fungal surges are presumably due to the availability of dead plants and animals as food sources following disasters and disruptions...

“If you ask most people what killed the dinosaurs, they’ll say it was that asteroid, but our fungal microfossil-based results suggest that the world already had been undergoing a cataclysm when the asteroid struck,”...