[HN Gopher] The Mesozoic terminated in boreal spring
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The Mesozoic terminated in boreal spring
Author : Someone
Score : 66 points
Date : 2022-02-23 16:12 UTC (6 hours ago)
(HTM) web link (www.nature.com)
(TXT) w3m dump (www.nature.com)
| jongalloway2 wrote:
| There's a really clear minute summary video by the first author
| on this paper: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jdshml5515o
| changoplatanero wrote:
| boreal means in the northern hemisphere. so it means that the
| meteor that killed the dinosaurs hit the earth when it was spring
| in north america.
|
| Different species are more or less vulnerable in each season.
| Species that were hibernating at this time had a better chance of
| survival and in general species in the southern hemisphere did
| better because it was fall there and it was a less critical time
| for most species.
| lanstin wrote:
| Wow, such detailed deductions are possible about the day of the
| impactor, I had no idea. I really want to put Hell's Creek on my
| to visit list now. Fascinating and, for Nature, very accessible
| article.
| andrewflnr wrote:
| This is the first published article I've seen that references the
| Tanis site. It wasn't totally clear that it was ever going to be
| accepted as real. Very cool that it apparently has.
| ridgeguy wrote:
| This 2019 New Yorker article about the Tanis site is a
| fascinating read.
|
| https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2019/04/08/the-day-the-di...
| brimble wrote:
| I checked, and the Tanis fossil site is, in fact, named after the
| ancient Egyptian city of Raiders of the Lost Ark fame.
|
| https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanis_(fossil_site)#Discovery_...
| Simon_O_Rourke wrote:
| I never heard of Tanis before, and the first thing that popped
| into my head was Indiana Jones.
|
| But reading up on what they found in North Dakota Tanis is damn
| interesting, even without Indy having a gemstone on the end of a
| stick ;)
|
| https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanis_(fossil_site)
| cecilpl2 wrote:
| TL;DR Sturgeon fins grow bone similarly to tree rings - in annual
| layers. By studying the outermost layer of many samples found on
| the K-Pg boundary they were able to deduce that they all died in
| spring.
|
| Corroborating evidence is found from some other fish exhibit
| seasonal variation in their C13/C12 ratios due to food
| availability.
| reactspa wrote:
| The Tanis site is one of the most interesting fossil sites in the
| world. It contains evidence of the Chicxulub impact (K-T boundary
| [now called K/Pg boundary], end of the dinosaurs) from 65 million
| years ago. It contains fossils believed to be from the day of the
| impact. There are well preserved fossils from multiple animal-
| types (fish, dinos, dino eggs, marine reptiles). And also
| spherules (little round balls of melted rock) from the actual
| impact that somehow made their way there from what is now Mexico.
|
| I live a couple hours away from the Tanis site. And I have my
| summers off. If anyone connected with any of the digs needs
| someone with my skills, and can give me pointers on how I can get
| involved, I'd appreciate it. My email is in my profile. I can
| code (in order of preference) SQL, JS, PHP, R, Python. I have a
| large house within 2 hours of Tanis (to accommodate guests), and
| a 4-by-4. A great interest of mine is information storage and
| fast retrieval (so... databases). I can photograph. But I really
| want to get my hands dirty in a dig.
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(page generated 2022-02-23 23:01 UTC)