When a catastrophic asteroid hit the
planet 66 million years ago, scientists believed that creatures in what we now
call the South Pole fared pretty well.
But the current studies suggests that
the dinosaur-killing asteroid also annihilated many marine animals in
Antarctica.
Scientists at the University of Leeds
and the British Antarctic Survey on Seymour Island in the Antarctic Peninsula
recently completed testing to determine the age of more than 6,000 marine
fossils. They dated from 65 to 69 million years ago – meaning the creatures
died around the same time as the powerful asteroid struck the Earth.
The research which was published in
the journal of Nature Communications on the Thursday, I giving scientists more
insight into one of the greatest mass extinction on the planet.
According to a statement by the
University of Leeds, this is the first study to argue that the mass die-off
that happened at the end of the Cretaceous Period was as rapid and devastating
not only around the world, but also at the Earth’s Polar Regions.
New data reveals that there was about
a 70% reduction of the animal population in Antarctica 66 million years ago,
meaning the deaths of these creatures was sudden and widespread.
In addition, the new fossil evidence
proves the case that the dinosaurs died because of an asteroid plunging into
the Gulf of Mexico, rather than environmental changes due to volcanic activity.
According to the University of Leeds,
the marine fossils collected that was analyzed is the largest to ever by
discovered anywhere in the world. It took researchers six years to date the
collection, including animals both big and small, ranging from clams on the sea
floor to large creatures that lived on the ocean’s surface.
One of these large marine creatures
that scientists were able to date was the giant reptile Mosasaurus, one of the
monstrous creatures featured in the 2015 science fiction thriller “Jurassic
World.”
Since marine fossils are so abundant
and provide a robust span of data, the new findings put up a good argument
against previous studies suggesting dinosaurs died off slowly.
Source: CNN
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