Fossilized Fish in Antarctic Point to Impact by Meteorite : Science File / An exploration of issues and trends affecting science, medicine and the environment
<i> From Times staff writers</i>
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 same cataclysmic event is believed by many to have wiped out the dinosaurs and 70% of the world’s species.
