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Review
. 2010 Mar 5;327(5970):1214-8.
doi: 10.1126/science.1177265.

The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

Peter Schulte  1 , Laia Alegret, Ignacio Arenillas, José A Arz, Penny J Barton, Paul R Bown, Timothy J Bralower, Gail L Christeson, Philippe Claeys, Charles S Cockell, Gareth S Collins, Alexander Deutsch, Tamara J Goldin, Kazuhisa Goto, José M Grajales-Nishimura, Richard A F Grieve, Sean P S Gulick, Kirk R Johnson, Wolfgang Kiessling, Christian Koeberl, David A Kring, Kenneth G MacLeod, Takafumi Matsui, Jay Melosh, Alessandro Montanari, Joanna V Morgan, Clive R Neal, Douglas J Nichols, Richard D Norris, Elisabetta Pierazzo, Greg Ravizza, Mario Rebolledo-Vieyra, Wolf Uwe Reimold, Eric Robin, Tobias Salge, Robert P Speijer, Arthur R Sweet, Jaime Urrutia-Fucugauchi, Vivi Vajda, Michael T Whalen, Pi S Willumsen
Affiliations
Review

The Chicxulub asteroid impact and mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

Peter Schulte et al. Science. .

Abstract

The Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary approximately 65.5 million years ago marks one of the three largest mass extinctions in the past 500 million years. The extinction event coincided with a large asteroid impact at Chicxulub, Mexico, and occurred within the time of Deccan flood basalt volcanism in India. Here, we synthesize records of the global stratigraphy across this boundary to assess the proposed causes of the mass extinction. Notably, a single ejecta-rich deposit compositionally linked to the Chicxulub impact is globally distributed at the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary. The temporal match between the ejecta layer and the onset of the extinctions and the agreement of ecological patterns in the fossil record with modeled environmental perturbations (for example, darkness and cooling) lead us to conclude that the Chicxulub impact triggered the mass extinction.

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Comment in

  • Cretaceous extinctions: the volcanic hypothesis.
    Courtillot V, Fluteau F. Courtillot V, et al. Science. 2010 May 21;328(5981):973-4; author reply 975-6. doi: 10.1126/science.328.5981.973-b. Science. 2010. PMID: 20489003 No abstract available.
  • Cretaceous extinctions: multiple causes.
    Archibald JD, Clemens WA, Padian K, Rowe T, Macleod N, Barrett PM, Gale A, Holroyd P, Sues HD, Arens NC, Horner JR, Wilson GP, Goodwin MB, Brochu CA, Lofgren DL, Hurlbert SH, Hartman JH, Eberth DA, Wignall PB, Currie PJ, Weil A, Prasad GV, Dingus L, Courtillot V, Milner A, Milner A, Bajpai S, Ward DJ, Sahni A. Archibald JD, et al. Science. 2010 May 21;328(5981):973; author reply 975-6. doi: 10.1126/science.328.5981.973-a. Science. 2010. PMID: 20489004 No abstract available.
  • Cretaceous extinctions: evidence overlooked.
    Keller G, Adatte T, Pardo A, Bajpai S, Khosla A, Samant B. Keller G, et al. Science. 2010 May 21;328(5981):974-5; author reply 975-6. doi: 10.1126/science.328.5981.974-a. Science. 2010. PMID: 20489005 No abstract available.

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