Posted on Sep 14, 2021
Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs shaped fortunes of snakes
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Snakes owe their success in part to the asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs, according to a new study.
The impact caused devastation, with most animals and plants dying out.
But scientists say a handful of surviving snake species were able to thrive in a post-apocalyptic world by hiding underground and going long periods without food.
The resilient reptiles then spread out across the globe, evolving into the 3,000 or more species known today.
The dinosaurs famously died out when an asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, triggering earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires, followed by a decade of darkness when ash clouds blocked out the Sun.
An estimated 76% of plants and animals disappeared. But snakes, like some other mammals, birds, frogs and fishes, managed to cling on to life.
The impact caused devastation, with most animals and plants dying out.
But scientists say a handful of surviving snake species were able to thrive in a post-apocalyptic world by hiding underground and going long periods without food.
The resilient reptiles then spread out across the globe, evolving into the 3,000 or more species known today.
The dinosaurs famously died out when an asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, triggering earthquakes, tsunamis and wildfires, followed by a decade of darkness when ash clouds blocked out the Sun.
An estimated 76% of plants and animals disappeared. But snakes, like some other mammals, birds, frogs and fishes, managed to cling on to life.
Asteroid that wiped out dinosaurs shaped fortunes of snakes
Posted from bbc.comPosted in these groups: 
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Posted 3 y ago
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Good article and very informative about snakes. I didn't know any of that information about snakes.
Our local museum teaches that small critters were able to survive because they could find cover - underground and hibernate - like snakes did. Also the death of the dinosaurs did not happen all at once immediately worldwide, though the must have in the region of impact. The changes in weather caused from the impact lasted a very long time, so that we actually can see a record of trends that indicate climate change over hundreds of thousands of years. The lava floods in Siberia and India also contributed to those changes over hundreds of thousands of years time which some scientist say had already contributed to the decline of the dinosaur by the time the asteroid arrived. In the immediate vicinity of the impact, even as far north as Montana there is evidence of catastrophe. Did a series of tidal waves from the impact reach that far north? The impact may have contributed to creating the inland sea that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic. At our local history museum a short film of a recreation of the Chicxulub impact was a favorite of visitors.
Here is a link that provides an idea of the immediate regional effects of the impact. It is interesting how the ejecta correspond to a supervolcano in NM and also to what looks like locations of Yellowstone hotspots in that region associated with its eruptions. Perhaps locations of ejecta are coincidental; or perhaps they thinned the crust enough at the location to eventually become hot spots. I haven't seen any research concerned with that question. But surely other folks have wondered too.
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/
Our local museum teaches that small critters were able to survive because they could find cover - underground and hibernate - like snakes did. Also the death of the dinosaurs did not happen all at once immediately worldwide, though the must have in the region of impact. The changes in weather caused from the impact lasted a very long time, so that we actually can see a record of trends that indicate climate change over hundreds of thousands of years. The lava floods in Siberia and India also contributed to those changes over hundreds of thousands of years time which some scientist say had already contributed to the decline of the dinosaur by the time the asteroid arrived. In the immediate vicinity of the impact, even as far north as Montana there is evidence of catastrophe. Did a series of tidal waves from the impact reach that far north? The impact may have contributed to creating the inland sea that extended from the Gulf of Mexico to the Arctic. At our local history museum a short film of a recreation of the Chicxulub impact was a favorite of visitors.
Here is a link that provides an idea of the immediate regional effects of the impact. It is interesting how the ejecta correspond to a supervolcano in NM and also to what looks like locations of Yellowstone hotspots in that region associated with its eruptions. Perhaps locations of ejecta are coincidental; or perhaps they thinned the crust enough at the location to eventually become hot spots. I haven't seen any research concerned with that question. But surely other folks have wondered too.
https://www.lpi.usra.edu/science/kring/Chicxulub/regional-effects/
Chicxulub Impact Event
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