from the beware-the-asteroides-of-march dept.
Results of the study, published in the journal Scientific Reports, greatly enhances the ability to trace the first stages of damage to life on Earth. [...]
"Time of year plays an important role in many biological functions such as reproduction, feeding strategies, host-parasite interactions, seasonal dormancy, and breeding patterns," said DePalma. "Hence, it is no surprise that the time of year for a global-scale hazard can play a big role in how harshly it impacts life. The seasonal timing of the Chicxulub impact has therefore been a critical question for the story of the end-Cretaceous extinction. Until now, the answer to that question has remained unclear."
For decades, it has been known that the cataclysmic Chicxulub asteroid impact hit the Yucatan peninsula 66 million years ago. The impact triggered the third-greatest extinction in Earth's history, dramatically changing global biomes in ways that directly relate to current global ecological crisis. Yet, the finer details of what happened after impact and how those events led to the third-worst mass-extinction in Earth's history remain very hazy.
The new study was a long-term effort that started in 2014 and applied a combination of traditional and cutting-edge techniques to piece together a trail of clues enabling identification of the season for the Chicxulub impact event. DePalma examined the Tanis research locality in southwestern North Dakota, one of the most highly detailed Cretaceous-Paleogene (KPg) boundary sites in the world, to understand the inner workings of the extinction event. The research provides important new data while building new academic bridges.
"This unique site in North Dakota had yielded a wealth of new and exciting information. Field data collected at the site, after hard work that went into analyzing it, provided us with new incredibly detailed insight of not only what happened at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary, but also exactly when it happened," said Oleinik. "It is nothing short of amazing how multiple lines of independent evidence suggested so clearly what time of the year it was 66 million years ago when the asteroid hit the planet. One of the great things about science is that it allows us to look at seemingly well-known facts and events at different angles and with different precision, therefore advancing our knowledge and understanding of the natural world. It also proves that geology and paleontology is still a science of discovery, even in the 21st Century." [...]
Journal Reference:
DePalma, Robert A., Oleinik, Anton A., Gurche, Loren P., et al. Seasonal calibration of the end-cretaceous Chicxulub impact event [open], Scientific Reports (DOI: 10.1038/s41598-021-03232-9)
Lots snipped - it does look like it was a multidisciplinary approach which is expanded on in the article itself.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @12:07AM (5 children)
The bird-brained lizards had it coming. Good fucking riddance.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @12:16AM
From a personal point of view, I AM GLAD IT HAPPENED so the dinos could be knocked off, opening up the opportunity for mammals to dominate, culminating in ME sitting in climate controlled comfort in my house working from home, instead of some lizard bastard like Enik from Land of the Lost.
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @12:17AM (1 child)
I'm here for the paleontology dissertations.
(Score: 0, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @12:48AM
Dr. Runaway will be along shortly to tell us, again, how when he was in baby doctor school, the teach told him the story of global cooling and the coming New Ice Age. Yes, he is something of a dinosaur.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @02:33AM
Then explain why you're still here.
(Score: 1, Interesting) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @03:25AM
Ah, but what you don't realize is that it didn't get rid of them, as witnessed by our British editors.
(Score: 3, Informative) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday December 14 2021, @12:42AM (9 children)
So, spring-summer means, what, June? Any time between March 23 and Sept 23?
Note that they must mean that seasons in the northern hemisphere. In the south, it would of course be fall-winter.
Also, our calendar would have to be modified to fit conditions that long ago. Days were about 23 hours long, so a year would have about 381 days.
(Score: 3, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @01:44AM (1 child)
There is no Fall in the southern hemisphere. We have Autumn instead.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Tuesday December 14 2021, @08:29PM
¿Pensé que Autumn se pronunciaba Otoño? Not everyone who lives in the southern hemisphere is Australian. In fact, most are not. South Americans say Otoño, not Autumn, nitpicker.
Carbon, The only element in the known universe to ever gain sentience
(Score: 1, Touché) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @01:57AM (3 children)
So, "PIN-POINT" (for purposes of your PhD thesis) means "one sort of summer-spring-ish time between 65 and 67 million years ago..."
A am mightily disappointed. I thought the genius boys had found a rock to precisely time this event, like down to "at 9:04am UCT on April 21 of the year 65,982,345 BC..."
(Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @02:06AM (2 children)
I'm pretty sure it was a Thursday. Reptiles hate Thursdays.
(Score: 2) by Gaaark on Tuesday December 14 2021, @02:29AM
They also like wiping their hard drives...you know, like with a cloth!
*ducks*
:)
--- Please remind me if I haven't been civil to you: I'm channeling MDC. ---Gaaark 2.0 ---
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @09:50PM
The end of the world? That would be Thursday afternoon, round about teatime.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @02:20AM
Fuck off, we have autumn here, keep your falls to yourself.
(Score: 2) by inertnet on Tuesday December 14 2021, @12:45PM (1 child)
I'm pretty sure that they have a better estimate, although they didn't publish it. They compared fish that had hatched that same year and died in the tsunami, to modern day young fish that are less than a year old. Of course the same species don't exist today, but I imagine that they would have a pretty good idea how far along in their development the fish were at their time of death.
(Score: 2) by bzipitidoo on Tuesday December 14 2021, @03:06PM
Exactly. Why not say that better estimate? Maybe May 32nd, plus or minus 7 days? Also, could it be possible to determine what phase of the moon it was, from biological processes tied to a lunar schedule?
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @04:16AM
KNOCK KNOCK
WHO'S THERE
NIGGER
NIGGER WHO?
DOES IT MATTER CRACKER ASS BITCH
FUCK YOUR MOTHERFUCKIN ASS I AIN'T NO FUCKIN JIVE TURKEY
(Score: -1, Flamebait) by Anonymous Coward on Tuesday December 14 2021, @04:19AM
I DON'T CARE BECAUSE IT'S JUST MORE WHITEY BULLSHIT MOTHERFUCKIN BULLSHIT
YOU CAN'T CONVINCE ME THAT WHITES HAVE POWER THEY SCARED ASS MOTHERFUCKERS
YOU SEE THEM RUN YOU SEE THEM WEARING DIAPERS ON THEIR FACES
FUCK YOU COCK SMOKIN CRACKERS THERE AINT A NIGGA IN THIS PLACE
BUILD BLACK BETTER!
(Score: 2) by Phoenix666 on Tuesday December 14 2021, @01:40PM
Viola had the perfect bikini picked out for what was shaping up to be a killer beach season...
Washington DC delenda est.