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Science 17 May 2002:
Vol. 296. no. 5571, pp. 1305 - 1307
DOI: 10.1126/science.1065522
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Reports

Ascent of Dinosaurs Linked to an Iridium Anomaly at the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary

P. E. Olsen,1 D. V. Kent,12 H.-D. Sues,3 C. Koeberl,4 H. Huber,4 A. Montanari,5 E. C. Rainforth,1 S. J. Fowell,6 M. J. Szajna,7 B. W. Hartline7

Analysis of tetrapod footprints and skeletal material from more than 70 localities in eastern North America shows that large theropod dinosaurs appeared less than 10,000 years after the Triassic-Jurassic boundary and less than 30,000 years after the last Triassic taxa, synchronous with a terrestrial mass extinction. This extraordinary turnover is associated with an iridium anomaly (up to 285 parts per trillion, with an average maximum of 141 parts per trillion) and a fern spore spike, suggesting that a bolide impact was the cause. Eastern North American dinosaurian diversity reached a stable maximum less than 100,000 years after the boundary, marking the establishment of dinosaur-dominated communities that prevailed for 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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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)