Extinction (optical mineralogy)

Geology

Sociology

Population

Biology

Gene

Cretaceous

Demography

Paleontology

Paleogene

Ecology

Fossil Record

Vertebrate

Extinction event

Biological dispersal

Biochemistry

Taxon

Science

Terrestrial record of recovery The extinction that occurred at the end of the Cretaceous period is best known as the end of the nonavian dinosaurs. In theory, this paved the way for the expansion of mammals as well as other taxa, including plants. However, there are very few direct records of loss and recovery of biotic diversity across this event. Lyson et al. describe a new record from the Cretaceous-Paleogene in Colorado that includes unusually complete vertebrate and plant fossils that describe this event in detail, including the recovery and expansion of mammalian body size and increasing plant and animal biotic diversity within the first million years. Science , this issue p. 977

Exceptional continental record of biotic recovery after the Cretaceous–Paleogene mass extinction