Cretaceous Meteor That Killed Most Life on Earth Hit in Spring

Researchers determined the season during which the meteor struck by studying the bones of fish excavated from a contentious field site.

Written byAmanda Heidt

| 5 min read

Save for Later

An artist's rendering of a dinosaur fleeing a wall of water

An artist's reconstruction of the Tanis site in North Dakota moments after the asteroid strike that caused the Cretaceous mass extinction.

Image credit:Joschua Knüppe

Listen with Speechify

0:00

5:00

The April shower that took place 66 million years ago did not, in fact, result in May flowers. Rather, when a meteor the size of a small city crashed into Earth near what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico that spring, it triggered a cascade of events that caused the death of three quarters of all life on Earth. Such is the conclusion of the researchers behind a new study, published today (February 24) in Nature, who analyzed the bones of several fish supposedly killed following the impact and determined that the meteor likely struck during spring in the Northern Hemisphere.

“It’s amazing that we can take an event, a single moment that happened 66 million years ago—literally a rock falling down and in an instant striking the Earth—and we can pinpoint that event to a particular time of the year,” Stephen Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of ...

Interested in reading more?

An artistic rendering of a dinosaur fleeing a wall of water

The Scientist ARCHIVES

Become a Member of

Receive full access to more than 35 years of archives, as well as TS Digest, digital editions of The Scientist, feature stories, and much more!

Join for free today

Already a member?

Add The Scientist as a preferred Google source to see more of our trusted coverage.

Meet the Author

Amanda Heidt
Go to The Scientist's LinkedIn Page
Amanda first began dabbling in scicom as a master’s student studying marine science at Moss Landing Marine Labs, where she edited the student blog and interned at a local NPR station. She enjoyed that process of demystifying science so much that after receiving her degree in 2019, she went straight into a second master’s program in science communication at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Formerly an intern at The Scientist, Amanda joined the team as a staff reporter and editor in 2021 and oversaw the publication’s internship program, assigned and edited the Foundations, Scientist to Watch, and Short Lit columns, and contributed original reporting across the publication. Amanda’s stories often focus on issues of equity and representation in academia, and she brings this same commitment to DEI to the Science Writers Association of the Rocky Mountains and to the board of the National Association of Science Writers, which she has served on since 2022. She is currently based in the outdoor playground that is Moab, Utah. Read more of her work at www.amandaheidt.com.
View Full Profile