The Journal of Young Investigators: An Undergraduate, Peer-Reviewed Science Journal

Catastrophic Events in the History of Life: Toward a New Understanding of Mass Extinctions in the Fossil Record - Part II

In Part I of this series, we traced the historical development of a theory stating that the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction resulted from the collision of a meteorite near the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. The idea of a K-T impact, first put forth by Luis and Walter Alvarez more than two decades ago, came under heavy criticism from paleontologists who had always thought the creatures who perished at the end of the Mesozoic were wiped out slowly over millions of years, not in a ins ...More »