Did An Extraterrestrial Impact Hasten the End-Triassic Extinction On Land?

This is a interesting news article in Nature examining work by Drs. Paul Olsen and Dennis Kent on the possibility that the Rochechouart impact in France may have had an adverse effect on global terrestrial populations around 200 million years ago. The article also includes an excellent new Triassic scene by Victor O. Leshyk, which features Redondavenator and Redondasaurus from the Upper Triassic Redonda Formation of New Mexico. There is also a Typothorax-like aetosaur in the background for armodillodile fans.

2 comments:

  1. um.

    I'd say so far the evidence is extremely lacking for another impact in the TJ extinction. The larger Manicouagan Crater seems to not been tied to any sort of extinction event and the overall pattern of the extinction seems closer to the PT than the KT/Pg.

    If I were an impact worker, I'd be checking out the Devonian extinctions more.

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  2. Question is, how do you separate seimites produced from eartquakes generated by an impact for those generated by tectonic activity related to a large igneous province?

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