Tanis (fossil site)

The Tanis fossil site has a unique place in Earth history. It preserves a record of what happened when the asteroid struck Earth 65 million years ago. The site is in North Dakota in part of the Hell Creek Formation,  famous rocks where dinosaur fossils are found.

Tanis seems to record the events immediately after the impact of the giant Chicxulub asteroid in extreme detail. The fossil fish from this site are covered with debris from the impact at Chicxulub.

The site was excavated by Robert DePalma over several years. He started in 2012, working in secret.DePalma, Robert A. et al 2019. A seismically induced onshore surge deposit at the KPg boundary, North Dakota. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 116 (17): 8190–8199 .

Key findings were presented in two conference papers in October 2017. The full paper introducing Tanis was widely covered in the media on 29 March 2019, ahead of its publication three days later. The co-authors included Walter Alvarez and Jan Smit, both experts on the K-Pg impact and extinction. 

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Category:Lagerstätten