The Mesozoic terminated in boreal spring.

ABSTRACT: The Cretaceous-Palaeogene mass extinction around 66 million years ago was triggered by the Chicxulub asteroid impact on the present-day Yucatán Peninsula^1,2. This event caused the highly selective extinction that eliminated about 76% of species^3,4, including all non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ammonites, rudists and most marine reptiles. The timing of the impact and its aftermath have been studied mainly on millennial timescales, leaving the season of the impact unconstrained. Here, by studying fishes that died on the day the Mesozoic era ended, we demonstrate that the impact that caused the Cretaceous-Palaeogene mass extinction took place during boreal spring. Osteohistology together with stable isotope records of exceptionally preserved perichondral and dermal bone

SUBMITTER: During MAD 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC8891016 | biostudies-literature | 2022 Mar

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature