[Rockhounds] K-Pg Impact Spurred the Evolution of the Modern Rainforest

[Paul]

How the Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Spurred the Evolution of
the Modern Rainforest. New evidence from fossil plants shows
today’s South American rainforests arose in the wake of Earth’s
fifth mass extinction. Smithsonian Magazine
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/how-dinosaur-killing-asteroid-spurred-evolution-modern-rainforest-180977390/

Prior to the Chicxulub impact, rainforests looked very different
Plant fossils from Colombia show a turnover from conifers to
today's forests. by Doug Johnson, Ars Technica, April 1, 2021
https://arstechnica.com/science/2021/04/prior-to-the-chicxulub-impact-rainforests-looked-very-different/

Paper

Carvalho, M.R., Jaramillo, C., de la Parra, F. et al. 2021.
Extinction at the end-Cretaceous and the origin of modern
Neotropical rainforests. Science. Vol. 372, Issue 6537, pp. 63-68
https://science.sciencemag.org/content/372/6537/63

Related papers

Wing, S.L., Herrera, F., Jaramillo, C.A., Gómez-Navarro,
C., Wilf, P. and Labandeira, C.C., 2009. Late Paleocene
fossils from the Cerrejón Formation, Colombia, are the
earliest record of Neotropical rainforest. Proceedings of
the National Academy of Sciences, 106(44), pp.18627-18632.

Graham, H.V., Herrera, F., Jaramillo, C., Wing, S.L. and
Freeman, K.H., 2019. Canopy structure in Late Cretaceous
and Paleocene forests as reconstructed from carbon isotope
analyses of fossil leaves. Geology, 47(10), pp.977-981.

Yours,

Paul H.