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Science 8 November 1991:
Vol. 254. no. 5033, pp. 835 - 839
DOI: 10.1126/science.11536489
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Articles

Science, Vol 254, Issue 5033, 835-839
Copyright © 1991 by American Association for the Advancement of Science

articles

Sudden extinction of the dinosaurs: latest Cretaceous, upper Great Plains, USA

PM Sheehan, DE Fastovsky, RG Hoffmann, CB Berghaus, and DL Gabriel

Department of Geology, Milwaukee Public Museum, WI 53233, USA.

Results of a three-year field study of family-level patterns of ecological diversity of dinosaurs in the Hell Creek Formation of Montana and North Dakota show no evidence (probability P < 0.05) of a gradual decline of dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous. Stratigraphic reliability was maintained through a tripartite division of the Hell Creek, and preservational biases were corrected for by comparison of results only from similar fades as well as through the use of large-scale, statistically rigorous survey and collection procedures. The findings are in agreement with an abrupt extinction event such as one caused by an asteroid impact.


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