Antarctic Creatures Were Affected By Mass Extinction Too, Confirms Fossil Study

Researchers previously thought that the mass extinction that wiped out the dinosaurs did not affect the creatures in the Antarctic to that extent.

However, a study of more than 6,000 fossils recovered from the area has revealed that this might not be true at all.

Contrary to popular beliefs, the mass extinction did impact the creatures in the Antarctic. The fossils analyzed by the researchers were recovered from the Seymour Island of the Antarctic Peninsula. It took six years for the researchers to identify these marine fossils, which are believed to be at least 69 to 65 million years old.

During the study, a team of researchers from the British Antarctic Survey and the University of Leeds scrutinized one of the largest collection of marine fossils. The fossils contained a huge variety of Antarctic creatures, including snails to massive underwater animals.

The researchers discovered that about 65 to 70 percent of the creatures in the Antarctic were wiped out 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous period. This was the same time around which the extinction of dinosaurs and other animals is believed to take place.

According to researcher James Witts, the study results show how everything was fine and Antarctic used to have a thriving community of marine animals, but the next day, it was all gone. Clearly, the study findings indicate that something terrible and catastrophic happened on Earth that wiped out many organisms, and not just the dinosaurs and other land animals.

The researchers further say that their study results prove that the extinction was a result of the sudden effect produced by an asteroid that hit Earth and that it was not a slow decline caused by climate change or volcanism.

The complete findings of the study have been published in the journal Nature Communications.