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WASHINGTON – In the United States, scientists have discovered the fossilized remains of a mass of dead creatures just minutes after a huge asteroid passed through Earth 66 million years ago, sealing the fate of dinosaurs.
In a forthcoming article Monday, a team of paleontologists based at the University of Kansas said they have discovered a "mother seam of exquisitely preserved animal and fish fossils" in present-day Dakota North.
The impact of the asteroid on what is today Mexico was the most cataclysmic event ever on Earth, eliminating 75% of the planet's animal and plant species, extinguishing dinosaurs and opening the way for human growth.
The researchers believe that the impact caused rapid seismic waves that triggered a sudden and massive torrent of water and debris from an arm of an inland sea called Inland Waterway. l & # 39; west.
On the Tanis site, in the Hell Creek Formation of North Dakota, the wave left "a tangled mass of freshwater fish, terrestrial vertebrates, trees, branches, logs, marine ammonites and other marine creatures, "according to Robert DePalma, lead author of the report.
Some of the fish fossils inhaled "ejectas" associated with the Chicxulub event, suggesting that seismic waves reached North Dakota in "tens of minutes," he said.
"The sedimentation took place so quickly that everything is preserved in three dimensions – they are not crushed," said co-author David Burnham.
"It's like an avalanche that collapses almost like a liquid, then sets like concrete. They were killed quite suddenly because of the violence of this water. We have a fish that has hit a tree and has been broken in two. "
The Tanis fossils include what was thought to be several newly identified species of fish, and others that were "the best examples of the genre," said DePalma, a graduate student and curator at the museum. natural history of Palm Beach Florida.
"We are looking at one-off recordings of one of the most remarkable impact events in Earth's history. No other site has such a similar record, "he said.
"And this particular event is directly related to all of us – to all the mammals of the Earth, in fact. Because it's basically where we inherited the planet. Nothing was the same after this impact. It's become a mammalian planet rather than a dinosaur planet. "
The document should be published in the Proceedings of the Academy of Natural Sciences.
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