How the Deccan Volcanism and the Chicxulub Asteroid Impact Resulted in the Biological Crisis Ending the Mesozoic Era
Journal of Geography, Environment and Earth Science International · pp. 1–11 · Published 20 Jun 2015
10.9734/JGEESI/2015/17721Abstract
The direct causes for the end-Cretaceous biological crisis are still enigmatic despite of the numerous studies carried out at the Chicxulub asteroid impact site and in the Indian late Cretaceous Deccan volcanic province. None of the discussed physical and chemical devastating factors explained the selective extinction-survival pattern. The present study analyzes the vulnerability of faunal and floral groups to a sudden ecological disaster as the result of the incidental co-occurrence of the asteroid impact during Deccan volcanism. Their combined ejecta must have shaded the sunlight, ceasing photosynthesis for about 2-3 years and lowering the temperature on earth, which must have been crucial for cold-blooded reptiles. The darkening would have blurred seasonality, drastically reducing floral blooming, fruition and organism reproduction, all of which resulted in the collapse of the marine and terrestrial food-chain and prey-predator relationships. Apart from death by starvation, the main killing was carried out by the organisms themselves through a Darwinian struggle for life leading to a selective elimination of the temporarily vulnerable taxa. Those which succeeded to escape adapted to refuge sites and survived. The disappearance of most of the Cretaceous carnivore reptiles enabled the survivors to fearlessly explore the Tertiary world and acclimatize to previously inaccessible habitats, which continuously shaped with the ongoing changes in the ecological and biological settings. This dynamic development of the Tertiary ecosystems accelerated the evolutionary tempos leading to rapid speciation. Despite being direct descendants of Cretaceous survivors they were given a new taxonomic identity and their precursors were considered wiped-out, intensifying the apparent end-Cretaceous ‘mass extinction’.
References (48)
- 1 The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary [DOI]
- 2 Synchronous spawnings of 105 scleractinian coral species on the Great Barrier Reef [DOI]
- 3 Periodic Extinction of Families and Genera [DOI]
- 4 40K–40Ar dating of the Main Deccan large igneous province: Further evidence of KTB age and short duration [DOI]
- 5 Determination of rapid Deccan eruptions across the Cretaceous‐Tertiary boundary using paleomagnetic secular variation: 2. Constraints from analysis of eight new sections and synthesis for a 3500‐m‐thick composite section [DOI]
- 6 The Cretaceous-Tertiary biotic transition [DOI]
- 7 Paleoecology of Mid-Cretaceous Planktonic Foraminifera: A Comparison of Open Ocean and Epicontinental Sea Assemblages [DOI]
- 8 Disruption of the Terrestrial Plant Ecosystem at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary, Western Interior [DOI]
- 9 Abrupt deep-sea warming at the end of the Cretaceous [DOI]
- 10 Late Cretaceous and paroxysmal Cretaceous/Tertiary extinctions [DOI]
- 11 The Chicxulub impact event and its environmental consequences at the Cretaceous–Tertiary boundary [DOI]
- 12 End-Cretaceous marine mass extinction not caused by productivity collapse [DOI]
- 13 Nature and timing of extinctions in Cretaceous-Tertiary planktic foraminifera preserved in Deccan intertrappean sediments of the Krishna–Godavari Basin, India [DOI]
- 14 Deccan Volcanism Linked to the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Mass Extinction: New Evidence from ONGC Wells in the Krishna-Godavari Basin [DOI]
- 15 Bolide impacts, acid rain, and biospheric traumas at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary [DOI]
- 16 Deccan traps mantle degassing in the terminal Cretaceous marine extinctions [DOI]
- 17 Fungal Proliferation at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary [DOI]
- 18 Sudden and Gradual Molluscan Extinctions in the Latest Cretaceous of Western European Tethys [DOI]
- 19 Lilliput effect in late Maastrichtian planktic foraminifera: Response to environmental stress [DOI]
- 20 Effects of symbiont elimination and reinfection on the life processes of the planktonic foraminifer Globigerinoides sacculifer [DOI]
- 21 Species richness and abundance patterns of Tethyan Cretaceous rudist bivalves (Mollusca: Hippuritacea) in the central-eastern Mediterranean and Middle East, analysed from a palaeontological database [DOI]
- 22 Deccan volcanism, the Chicxulub impact, and the end-Cretaceous mass extinction: Coincidence? Cause and effect? [DOI]
- 23 Posture, locomotion, and paleoecology of pterosaurs [DOI]
- 24 Tethyan Phosphates and Bioproductites [DOI]
- 25 Late Cretaceous dinosaur eggshells from the Tremp Basin, southern Pyrenees, Lleida, Spain [DOI]
- 26 Dinosaurs nesting on tidal flats [DOI]
- 27 Predation on coral spawn by planktivorous fish [DOI]
- 28 Late Maastrichtian and earliest Danian scaphitid ammonites from central Europe: Taxonomy, evolution and extinction
- 29 High-resolution geochemical record of Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary sections in Mexico: New constraints on the K/T and Chicxulub events [DOI]
- 30 Evidence for ammonite survival into the Danian (Paleogene) from the Cerithium Limestone at Stevns Klint, Denmark [DOI]
- 31 Multiproxy analysis of a new terrestrial and a marine Cretaceous–Paleogene (K–Pg) boundary site from New Zealand [DOI]
- 32 Late Maastrichtian Volcanism in the Indian Ocean: Effects on Calcareous Nannofossils and Planktic Foraminifera [DOI]
- 33 Direct U-Pb dating of Cretaceous and Paleocene dinosaur bones, San Juan Basin, New Mexico [DOI]
- 34 Short-Term Survival of Ammonites in New Jersey After the End-Cretaceous Bolide Impact [DOI]
- 35 Impact dust not the cause of the Cretaceous-Tertiary mass extinction [DOI]
- 36 An Upper Cretaceous Ammonite Bitten by a Mosasaur
- 37 Dinosaur nests at the sea shore [DOI]
- 38 Mosasaur Predation on Upper Cretaceous Nautiloids and Ammonites from the United States Pacific Coast [DOI]
- 39 A nest ofProtoceratops andrewsi(Dinosauria, Ornithischia) [DOI]
- 40 Vertebrate extinctions and survival across the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary [DOI]
- 41 Iron and Phytoplankton Growth in the Subarctic North Pacific [DOI]
- 42 Terminal Maastrichtian ammonites from the Cretaceous–Paleogene Global Stratotype Section and Point, El Kef, Tunisia [DOI]
- 43 A Terminal Mesozoic "Greenhouse": Lessons from the Past [DOI]
- 44 Catastrophic versus noncatastrophic extinction of the dinosaurs: testing, falsifiability, and the burden of proof [DOI]
- 45 Octopods: Nude ammonoids that survived the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary mass extinction [DOI]
- 46 Early Jurassic Planktonic Foraminifera from Hungary [DOI]
- 47 Late Maastrichtian rudist and coral assemblages from the Central Inlier, Jamaica: towards an event stratigraphy for shallow-water Caribbean limestones [DOI]
- 48 Modification of the original stratigraphic distribution of Globigerina hillebrandti Orue-Etxebarria, 1985 and its inclusion in another genus; one more planktonic foraminifer species surviving the mass extinction of the K/T boundary [DOI]
Cited by 4
Gregory Paul · International Journal of Earth Sciences · 2017
Zeev Lewy · International Journal of Earth Sciences · 2016
Showing 2 of 4 known citations — external sources report more than can currently be individually listed.
Article metrics
Real usage data collected on this platform.
46
Page views
0
PDF downloads
18
Outbound clicks
4
Citations
Views over time
Views by country
Approximate, from request IP at view time — not citizenship or institution. Countries with fewer than 5 views are grouped as "Other".
Traffic sources
Referring site, by host.
Views and downloads exclude known bots/crawlers. Citations combines this platform's own DOI-resolved index with each external source's own reported total — see Cited by above for individually listed citing works. Last refreshed 0 seconds ago.