Springtime: Season of the Dinosaur Extinction
The asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs has become common knowledge, as the doomsday-story of choice in pop culture. There are countless films referencing its destruction, from the 1998 film Armageddon to Pixar’s The Good Dinosaur to the recent movie Don’t Look Up. Despite the many media depictions of extinction-level asteroid impacts, there are many details about the asteroid impact in the Yucatán Peninsula that killed the dinosaurs that remain a mystery. For example, there isn’t even scientific consensus on what year it took place. But new evidence may help us pinpoint a season when everything went downhill for the dinosaurs. In a recent paper published in Nature, researchers analyzed the bones of ancient fish found in North Dakota that died during the period of this asteroid impact. Melanie During, vertebrate paleontologist, found that the jawbones and pectoral fins of these fish displayed growth that wasn’t quite yet at its peak. The team inferred that this means these fish died when they were not at their peak growth season in the summertime. They concluded that the asteroid impact likely occurred in spring in the Northern Hemisphere. You can read more about this study here. More than this just being a fun fact, pinpointing the season of the impact can help scientists understand the global patterns of migration following the strike. But until we can paint a better picture of that disastrous period, we can sit back, break out the popcorn, and watch The Good Dinosaur. Despite the many crises that our world is facing, at least we know we’re not about to get fried in an asteroid impact anytime soon.
Author Bio
Natalie Wang is currently working on her undergraduate degrees in Neuroscience and Medicine, Science, and the Humanities at Johns Hopkins University as a Hodson Trust Scholar. Her research interests are in DNA damage and repair, as well as post-operative delirium in older patients. Natalie started volunteering with WIS PDX in 2019 as a member of the outreach and education team, and is now the producer and a co-host of WIS's podcast, WISterhood. When not listening to music or doom-scrolling on Twitter, she can be found checking closets for Narnia.