New Extinction Theories, The Meteor Impact
For more details on this topic, see Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event.Traditionally paleontology had followed geology in preferring uniformitarian mechanisms, despite the promotion by Eugene Merle Shoemaker of the importance of catastrophic impacts.
During the renaissance period Walter Alvarez and others found iridium in the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary layer. Also the Chicxulub Crater, was identified and determined to be due to a meteor impact. These discoveries led to the acceptance and popularisation of the idea that the extinction had been caused by a meteor impact.
This in turn undermined the assumption that dinosaurs had become extinct because they were inferior to mammals. Instead it suggested they had fallen prey to a random event which no large animal could have survived.
Read more about this topic: Dinosaur Renaissance
Famous quotes containing the words extinction, meteor and/or impact:
“Man is an over-complicated organism. If he is doomed to extinction he will die out for want of simplicity.”
—Ezra Pound (1885–1972)
“The meteor that thrusts in with needle bill,
And off a blossom in mid-air stands still.”
—Robert Frost (1874–1963)
“If the federal government had been around when the Creator was putting His hand to this state, Indiana wouldn’t be here. It’d still be waiting for an environmental impact statement.”
—Ronald Reagan (b. 1911)