Fossilized Fish in Antarctic Point to Impact by Meteorite : Science File / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment

As the dinosaurs went, so went the fish.

On an island near the Antarctic Peninsula, a Purdue University paleontologist has discovered a layer of fossilized fish bones--possible road kill when an asteroid slammed into the Earth about 65 million years ago. The fossils, which cover more than 20 square miles of an island near the tip of the peninsula, lie directly above a layer of iridium, an element rare on Earth but a common signature of meteorite impacts.

“The occurrence of this bone bed immediately above the iridium anomaly is more than, I think, coincidence,” said William Zinsmeister. “And these fish may actually represent the first documented victims.”

The same cataclysmic event is believed by many to have wiped out the dinosaurs and 70% of the world’s species.

Zinsmeister will present his results at a meeting of the Geological Society of America in New Orleans.