The Iridium Anomaly
About 66 million years ago, give or take a week or two, evidence shows that
a cataclysmic event in the form of a huge meteor impact occurred near what
is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico.
Scientists discovered a thin layer of the elemental metal Iridium separating
the Cretaceous and Paleogene geologic periods. Iridium is rare on Earth, but
abundant in meteorites.
There is strong evidence of cause and effect. Before the event, Dinosaurs.
After, no dinosaurs. Along with the Dinosaurs, we lost, worldwide, 70% of
the other species that existed before the presumed impact.
That impact threw so much crap into the atmosphere that the ‘impact
winter’ that ensued could have lasted several thousand years. There
would have been a chain reaction of events, including the nearly total inability
of plants to conduct photosynthesis, that compounded the initial impact effects.
The theory is supported by abundant evidence, but there are other ideas. This
one seems most plausible.
Today’s illustration is one I did about 20 years ago. A velociraptor
is seen fleeing the destruction. He wasn’t close enough to die from
the initial blast, but ultimately his flight is in vain.
By the way, the Jurassic Park velociraptors are about 3 times the size of
raptors known from the fossil record. They were about the size of a German
shepherd. But they probably weren’t any nicer than the movie monsters!
© 2023 Scott Wright
