Tag: Yucatan
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Divers in Mexico’s Underwater Caves Get a Glimpse of Rarely Seen Artifacts, Fossils and Human Remains
Smithsonian Magazine has an article about the underwater caves of Mexico. They call them cenotes and these particular caves are located in the Yucatán Peninsula. They date to a few million years ago and preserved remnants of the Mayan culture and sometime fossils of extinct animals. The underwater caves of the Yucatán Peninsula are a…
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Why did the Maya civilization collapse?
Live Science has a story about the Maya and what may have caused the collapse of their society about 1000 years ago. Usually a mix of environmental and political problems are sited as the reason for the collapse. There were severe droughts between 800 CE and 1000 CE. However, collapse may be a bad description…
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A Mysterious Crater’s Age May Add Clues to the Dinosaur Extinction
The New York Times Trilobites column has a story about a mysterious crater in Ukraine. Scientists have long questioned when the 15 mile wide Boltysh crater was formed, either before or after the Chicxulub crater in the Yucatan Peninsula, which caused the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs at the end of the Cretaceous Period. A…
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Phys.org: New evidence suggests it was matter ejected from the Chicxulub crater that led to impact winter
Phys.org has a story on new research about the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs. Since it’s discovery 40 years ago by Walter and Luis Alvarez, this mass extinction, which occurred approximately 66 million years ago, has been a source for much research. The cause is generally thought to be the large meteor that struck the…
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Quanta: A Rapid End Strikes the Dinosaur Extinction Debate
Quanta Magazine has an interesting piece about the extinction of the dinosaurs. The article is an interview with Yale Paleontologist Pincelli Hull. Her principle sub-field of study is marine plankton fossils. In the interview, she discusses some new evidence that the full blame for the K-T extinction lies with the asteroid that struck the Yucatan…
