Sudden extinction of the dinosaurs: latest Cretaceous, upper Great Plains, USA

Abstract

Results of a three-year field study of family-level patterns of ecological diversity of dinosaurs in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and North Dakota show no evidence (probability P < 0.05) of a gradual decline of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. Stratigraphic reliability was maintained through a tripartite division of the Hell Creek, and preservational biases were corrected for by comparison of results only from similar fades as well as through the use of large-scale, statistically rigorous survey and collection procedures. The findings are in agreement with an abrupt extinction event such as one caused by an asteroid impact.