Famous for the extinction of all dinosaur species, the late Cretaceous mass extinction event was even more catastrophic as it wiped out many other species, estimated to have eradicated up to 75% of life on Earth at that time.
A recently published study in Scientific Reports has traced fossil evidence of other species to gain a more comprehensive understanding of this devastating impact.
Graphic illustrating the Chicxulub disaster during the Cretaceous period – (Image: Serpeblu – Shutterstock)
“The time of year plays a crucial role in many biological functions. Therefore, it is no surprise that the timing of a global-scale disaster could significantly influence the severity of that threat to life,” said Dr. Robert DePalma from the Charles E. Schmidt College of Science at Florida Atlantic University (USA), the lead author of the study, in an interview with Sci-News.
According to Heritage Daily, the impact of the massive Chicxulub asteroid on the Yucatán Peninsula 66 million years ago was the third mass extinction in Earth’s history, drastically altering global ecosystems in ways related to the current global ecological crisis.
This ongoing project, which began in 2014, examined the Tanis site in North Dakota (USA) to uncover hidden details about the extinction event. The unique structure and growth patterns in the fossilized fish bones from Tanis indicate that they died en masse during the spring-summer growth phase, making the mass extinction even more devastating.
Scientists analyzed the juvenile fish fossils using advanced X-ray techniques, then compared the sizes of the smallest fish with the growth rates of modern equivalent species to determine how long after hatching these unfortunate creatures were buried. The answer was very soon and extremely harsh.
