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Ascent of Dinosaurs Linked to an Iridium Anomaly at the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary
P. E. Olsen,1D. V. Kent,12H.-D. Sues,3C. Koeberl,4H. Huber,4A. Montanari,5E. C. Rainforth,1S. J. Fowell,6M. J. Szajna,7B. W. Hartline7
Analysis of tetrapod footprints and skeletal material
from more than 70 localities in eastern North America shows that largetheropod dinosaurs appeared less than 10,000 years after the
Triassic-Jurassicboundary and less than 30,000 years after the last
Triassic taxa,synchronous with a terrestrial mass extinction. This
extraordinaryturnover is associated with an iridium anomaly (up to 285 partsper trillion, with an average maximum of 141 parts per trillion)and a fern spore spike, suggesting that a bolide impact was thecause.
Eastern North American dinosaurian diversity reached astable maximum
less than 100,000 years after the boundary, markingthe establishment
of dinosaur-dominated communities that prevailedfor the next 135 million years.
1 Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory of
Columbia University, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.
2 Department of Geological Sciences, Rutgers
University, Piscataway, NJ 08854-8066, USA.
3 Department of Palaeobiology, Royal Ontario Museum,
100 Queen's Park, Toronto, ON M5S 2C6, Canada.
4 Institute of Geochemistry, University of Vienna,
Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
5 Osservatorio Geologio do Coldigiocom, 1-62020 Frontale di Aprio, Italy.
6 Department of Geology
and Geophysics, University of Alaska Fairbanks, Fairbanks, AK
99775-5780, USA.
7 Reading Public Museum, 500 Museum Road, Reading, PA 19611, USA.
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