易胜博官网

New research from 易胜博官网 sheds light on how life on Earth rebounded 66 million years ago听after an asteroid wiped out dinosaurs and most other species. Professor of Earth sciences Will Clyde and Anthony Fuentes 鈥�19G, working in a specialized paleomagnetism lab at 易胜博官网, analyzed a large collection of well-preserved animal and plant fossils discovered in Colorado and determined they date to within the first million years after the mass extinction, an interval of time that is otherwise very poorly sampled globally.

鈥淲e have this incredible information locked up in these rocks just waiting to be discovered.鈥�

The听extraordinary collection of fossils听(16 mammal species, as well as crocodiles, turtles and fruits),听discovered in 2016 by a team from the , reveals how the world and life recovered after the catastrophic asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. and Fuentes helped determine the age of this unprecedented find 鈥� thousands of exceptionally preserved animal and plant fossils 鈥� dating them to the first million years after the asteroid impact and听painting a portrait of the emergence of the modern world.

鈥淲e often hear about the asteroid impact at the end of the Cretaceous and the demise of the dinosaurs, but we know much less about how ecosystems recovered after this mass extinction event, says Clyde. 鈥淭hese new fossil discoveries from Colorado provide a very unusual window into that period of recovery.鈥�

Clyde and Fuentes are co-authors of the study in that鈥檚 gained widespread attention and is the subject of a NOVA documentary, 鈥�,鈥� streaming online. It was broadcast nationally on public television Oct. 30.

To determine the age of the fossils, lead researchers Tyler Lyson and Ian Miller from the Denver Museum of Nature & Science called on Clyde, who traveled with Fuentes (then his graduate student) to the Colorado site and collected rocks from above and below where the specimens were found. Back at 易胜博官网, the duo measured their magnetic signatures to determine their age, using the known sequence of Earth鈥檚 magnetic field flip-flopping over time.

鈥淭he fossil record never ceases to amaze me,鈥� says Clyde. 鈥淲e have this incredible information locked up in these rocks just waiting to be discovered.鈥�