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The asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs in the late Cretaceous wiped out much of life on Earth. While we know how this story unfolds, a team of scientists are now adding a new chapter. One is bordered by flowers. In fact, scientists say the space rock that submerged Earth in Dino’s death is exactly what made our home planet home to the lush, flourishing rainforests we know today.
A team of scientists working at the Smithsonian Tropical Research Institute (STRI) in Panama, to decipher how tropical rainforests change after severe environmental disruption. The Chicxulub Impactor, which destroyed 45% of the factories in what is now Colombia and drove the world into obscurity, was the perfect opportunity for a preview.
Don Davis / NASA
To study the changes, scientists examined fossils of tropical plants from sites in Central and South America. Including over 50,000 pollen fossils and 6,000 leaf fossils before and after impact. When comparing? The team discovered that the dinosaur killers were minimally transformed, evergreen-rich rainforests into today’s denser, taller rainforests; The same are teeming with vibrant bromeliads, technicolor and drooping orchids.
Scientists who described their findings in a recently published gonorrhea study Science (Which comes via BBC News), for example, the fossil record indicates that the jungle canopy in the American tropics has evolved from relatively open to closed and multi-layered. In turn, they say that this led to an increase in vertical stratification. Therefore, greater diversity in the forms of plant growth.
The three central theories developed by scientists explaining this change concern both the impact of asteroids and the absence of dinosaurs. Scientists say the first theory is that dinosaurs kept their forests “open” by feeding and moving through them. The second: the ash fall of the effect enriches tropical soils, which gives an advantage to fast-growing flowering plants. Finally, the preferential extinction of masked species has allowed flowering plants to take over.
Curt Edblom
“Our study follows a simple question: How are tropical rainforests changing?” Monica Carvallo, the botanist and lead author of the study, said in a press release from STRI. “The lesson here is that with rapid disruption – geologically – tropical ecosystems don’t just bounce back; They are replaced and the process takes a long time. “
Featured Image: Curt Edblom
The post may be an asteroid killing the rainforest of dinosaurs on Earth first appeared Nerdist.
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