In the long shadow of the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurslife seems to have bounced back with surprising speed.
New analysis of sedimentation rates suggests that the first wave of marine species appeared in a few thousand years of mass extinction, several millennia faster than many scientists thought.
The results, reported on January 21 in Geologyinvite us to rethink how quickly evolution can rebuild biological diversity – not just as it did after the Asteroid Chicxulub hit Earth 66 million years ago, but perhaps also today and into the future, as climate change and other human pressures accelerate the pace of ecological upheaval.
“It really helps us understand how quickly species can evolve,” says Christopher Lowery, a paleoceanographer at the University of Texas at Austin, adding that it provides a “rare opportunity in the geologic past to understand how ecosystems can recover from these rapid and severe changes.”
The evidence comes from marine fossils known as planktonic foraminifera, microscopic single-celled inhabitants of ancient oceans encased in tiny mineral shells. The first appearance of one of these organisms – with an eloquent name Parvularuglobigerina eugubina – is an established geological timestamp marking the dawn of life’s recovery after the asteroid.
