Note:My Anthropic Trilogy web-book, evolving since 1997, is a chronicle of my passing all considered opinion through the lens of my Nirvikalpa Samadhi with both an open-mind and healthy skepticism.
How life blossomed after the dinosaurs died by Elizabeth Pennisi, Science: 25 Oct 2019, Summary: Researchers have discovered that Corral Bluffs, 100 kilometers from Denver, provides a well-dated fossil treasure trove that has revealed how life recovered from the impact of a giant asteroid 66 million years ago. Unlike many fossil sites from the era just after the dinosaurs went extinct, Corral Bluffs' marine shale preserves a complete plant, animal, and environmental record. The team was able to establish high-resolution dating of the layers there, using pollen to pinpoint when the asteroid hit and other methods to establish key timepoints. At first, ferns and animals no bigger than 6 kilograms dominated that landscape, but by 100,000 years later, palms had taken over and mammals were twice as big and more diverse. This trend continued, fueled by the rise of new kinds of plants and particularly by the appearance of protein-rich legumes. The findings will help researchers understand what may happen with the mass extinction that may be going on right now.
Images excerpted fron Scientific American December 2003 article
A World Lost, a World Remade
Slideshow of stages of transformation in a landscape within 50 years of the Chicxulub asteroid impact.
Rise of the MammalsAmazing fossils reveal how mammals took over after an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs NOVA, 10/30/19 video 53:16 - Sixty-six million years ago, an asteroid wiped out the dinosaurs in a fiery global catastrophe. But we know little about how their successors, the mammals, recovered and took over the world. Now, hidden inside ordinary-looking rocks, an astonishing trove of fossils reveals a dramatic new picture of how rat-sized creatures ballooned in size and began to evolve into the vast array of species - from cheetahs to bats to whales to humans - that rule our planet today. Features spectacularly preserved plants and mammalian fossils in Corral Bluff formation, Colorado that evidence the rapid evolution spanning the entire first one million years after the extinction event. Presents 7 other videos relating to recovery of life after the Cretaceous.
