But there were some dinosaurs that did not die as a result of the catastrophic post-asteroid climate change. These dinosaurs lived in what is now known as America, within the confines of the Chicxulub Impact Zone, which occurred in the Gulf of Mexico just off the north coast of the Yucatan Peninsula. These unfortunate creatures would have been destroyed immediately or soon after the impact of the asteroid Yucatan that destroyed the earth, unable to withstand the unimaginable destructive forces released in the aftermath of this planetary catastrophe. Now, for the first time, paleontologists have discovered fossil remains of one of these dinosaurs, an animal that was killed by the direct physical effects of the asteroid Yucatan, the single most devastating event in Earth history.
The asteroid Chicxulub Yucatan hit the Caribbean and somehow cut off the dinosaur’s leg the same day 3,000 kilometers (1,864 miles) away. (Ron Blakely / Colorado Plateau Geosystems)
Leather covered Dino Severed foot by Yucatan Asteroid Blast!
During excavations at the Tanis fossil site in North Dakota, in what is known as the Hell Creek Formation, a team of explorers led by paleontologist Robert DePalma of the University of Manchester discovered the fossil foot of a Thescelosaurus. -as a vegetarian from the late Cretaceous period.
Surprisingly, the foot was intact and still covered in fossilized skin, suggesting that any force that had removed the foot was incredibly strong and concentrated.
“It looks like an animal whose leg has come off very quickly,” Professor Paul Barrett of the Natural History Museum in London told the Daily Mail. “There is no evidence of foot disease, no obvious pathology, no trace of the foot being cleansed, such as bite marks or missing pieces.”
The Hell Creek Formation, and the Tanis fossil site it contains, were created in the aftermath of the Chicxulub asteroid impact 66 million years ago. The asteroid Yucatan created a 93-mile (150-kilometer-wide) impact generator, and its collision with Earth emitted a massive catastrophic echo that radiated in all directions from the ground. North America was hit by seismic waves equivalent to those created by an 11-magnitude earthquake and immediately after inland waves that were as strong as those created by the most devastating tsunami.
Thescelosaurus was apparently killed in a sudden and extremely violent manner, even though the asteroid struck about 1,900 miles (3,000 kilometers) away. Combining all the pieces, it is clear that thesselosaurus was an early and immediate victim of an asteroid impact on the Yucatan, which eventually killed not only the dinosaurs but up to 75 percent of the animal species living on the planet at the time.
The discovery of the dinosaur amputated leg is groundbreaking, paleontologists say, because no other dinosaur fossil has ever been directly linked to the most catastrophic event in Earth history.
“This is the most incredible thing we could imagine here, the best script, the only thing we always wanted to find on this site and here we have it,” Robert DePalma told the BBC. “Here we have a creature that was buried on the day of the impact – we did not yet know if it had died during the impact, but now it looks like it probably died.”
Paleontologists have been able to reconstruct what happened in the formation of Hells Creek after the impact of the asteroid Yucatan. After the asteroid hit, sea level rise and tsunamis would have created an inland sea to the north. The process that created this sea would also have created at least two massive, towering waves that moved so far inland that they actually reached what is now North Dakota. These huge waves overtook the Tanis site and eventually covered the animals that died there with up to six feet (1.8 meters) of sediment.
Between the first and second of these waves, glass beads called tectites would fall from the sky like tiny ballistic missiles, reaching speeds of more than 200 miles (320 kilometers) per hour. It is possible that one of these tiny but deadly pieces of glass struck the unfortunate Theselosaurus hard enough to amputate his leg and kill him, although that is only one possible explanation for the creature’s death. It is characteristic that the sediment layer at the Tanis site was eventually transformed into a type of iridium-rich clay. This substance is rare on Earth, but asteroids and meteorites are abundant.
University of Manchester paleontologist Robert DePalma is working at Hell Creek, where the Yucatan asteroid impact clearly cut off the dinosaur’s leg. (BBC)
The Final Day of the Dinosaurs was revealed in frightening detail
The amazing story of Tanis will be presented to the British public on April 15, when BBC One will broadcast a new documentary entitled “Dinosaurs: The Final Day with David Attenborough”. The documentary was filmed over three years, and as the story unfolds, Sir David Attenborough will introduce viewers to many of the fossil finds at Hell Creek Formation since the site was discovered in 2008. “We have so much detail with this site that they tell us what happened moment by moment, it’s almost like watching it play in the movies,” DePalma explained. “You look at the rock column, you look at the fossils there and it brings you back to that day.” DePalma and other paleontologists surveyed at Tanis have not yet submitted their latest findings for evaluation and publication. However, they chose to reveal what they had just discovered, to help create more interest in the upcoming documentary. Top Picture: This dinosaur foot 66 million years ago was clearly cut off from the dinosaur body by an asteroid impact in the Yucatan. Nothing like this has ever been found before! Source: (Video screenshot / BBC) By Nathan Falde
