US EditionHow extinction of dinosaurs reshaped earth’s entire landscape
After dinosaurs' extinction 66 million years ago, forests expanded and stabilized sediments, causing rivers in the western US to develop broad meanders, researchers found.
- A University of Michigan team published this week that the dinosaur extinction 66 million years ago reshaped landscapes and rivers across western North America.
- This core event followed the Chicxulub asteroid impact, which delivered an iridium-rich layer marking the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary where geological changes occurred.
- Researchers found that dinosaurs acted as ecosystem engineers keeping forests sparse, and once extinct, dense forests regrew rapidly, stabilizing sediments and forming meandering rivers.
- Lead author Luke Weaver explained that the extinction of large dinosaurs triggered profound changes in landscapes and ecosystems, evidenced by a shift in sediment from sand and silt to coal that lasted for over a million years.
- These findings imply that large biological extinctions can rapidly transform ecosystems and physical geography, offering an analogue for current human-driven climate and biodiversity changes.
22 Articles
22 Articles
The Dinos’ Demise Gave Rivers Their Shape
Dinosaurs were the architects of entire ecosystems on Earth. Leaf-munching, ground-trampling, and soil-uprooting by herds of large herbivores like Tricerotops and Edmontosaurus kept Cretaceous forests in check, helping to maintain open savannas that would otherwise have been thick with trees. This in turn likely had a profound effect on how rivers flowed across landscapes, both while the dinosaurs were alive and after they went extinct in an ast…
(Seoul = Yonhap News) Reporter Lee Ju-young = Dinosaurs had a huge impact on the Earth before going extinct 66 million years ago, and the sudden extinction had a wide-ranging impact, including on river systems...
Watauga Democrat
How extinction of dinosaurs reshaped earth’s entire landscape
The reptiles had such an "immense" impact on the planet that their sudden exit led to wide-scale changes.
Extinction of Non-Avian Dinosaurs Led to Wide Scale Changes in Landscapes: Study
New research suggests dinosaurs were ecosystem engineers that promoted habitat openness in the Late Cretaceous epoch, and their extinction around 66 million years ago likely led to a dramatic reorganization of ecosystem structure. The post Extinction of Non-Avian Dinosaurs Led to Wide Scale Changes in Landscapes: Study appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
Dinosaurs have probably influenced their habitat more than before. Researchers have analysed the flood areas – and can draw fascinating conclusions from them Still today, it is possible to understand how dinosaurs once transformed landscapes massively. Sudden geological changes in the transition from the age of dinosaurs to the age of mammals probably stemmed from newly formed forests, stabilized sediments and more channelled rivers, reports a r…
After the dinosaurs went extinct, rivers in western North America changed character remarkably quickly. A new study offers a surprising explanation: the dinosaurs themselves kept the landscape in check. Geologists had long observed a sharp transition between rock types just before and just after the mass extinction at the K-Pg boundary (the […] Want to know more about science? Read the latest articles on Scientias.nl.
Coverage Details
Bias Distribution
- 42% of the sources lean Right
Factuality
To view factuality data please Upgrade to Premium
