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Indication of Global Deforestation at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary by New Zealand Fern Spike
Vivi Vajda,1*J. Ian Raine,2Christopher J. Hollis2
The devastating effect on terrestrial plant communities
of a bolide impact at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary is shown infossil pollen and spore assemblages by a diverse flora being abruptlyreplaced by one dominated by a few species of fern. Well documentedin
North America, this fern spike signals widespread deforestationdue to
an impact winter or massive wildfires. A Southern Hemisphererecord of
a fern spike, together with a large iridium anomaly,indicates that the
devastation was truly global. Recovery of NewZealand plant communities
followed a pattern consistent with majorclimatic perturbations
occurring after an impact winter that waspossibly preceded by global
wildfires.
1 Department of Geology, Lund University,
Tornavägen 13, SE-223 63 Lund, Sweden.
2 Institute of Geological and Nuclear Sciences, Post
Office Box 30-368, Lower Hutt, New Zealand.
*
To whom correspondence should be addressed: E-mail:
vivi.vajda{at}geol.lu.se
The editors suggest the following Related Resources on Science sites:
In Science Magazine
PERSPECTIVES
Tim Flannery (23 November 2001) Science294 (5547), 1668.
[DOI: 10.1126/science.1066727] |Summary »|Full Text »|PDF »
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