Johns Hopkins Finds Fungal Spike 30,000 Years Before Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid
Updated
Updated · Earth.com · May 28
Johns Hopkins Finds Fungal Spike 30,000 Years Before Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid
2 articles · Updated · Earth.com · May 28
Three fungal surges in Colorado rock samples suggest ecosystems were already deteriorating before the asteroid struck 66 million years ago, with the earliest bloom starting about 30,000 years earlier and lasting roughly 20,000 years.
That first rise in fungal remains matched a cooling period tied to Deccan Traps volcanism in India, supporting the idea that prolonged eruptions had already stressed global climate and food webs.
A second fungal spike appeared exactly at the impact boundary, echoing earlier findings from New Zealand and strengthening evidence that decay-loving fungi surged globally after the mass die-off.
A third increase about 10,000 years after the collision has no clear trigger, suggesting post-extinction recovery remained unstable long after the initial catastrophe.
The PNAS study argues the asteroid was the final blow to a planet already under strain, adding microbial evidence to a more complex account of dinosaur extinction.
If an asteroid wasn't the sole killer, what volcanic cataclysm had already doomed the dinosaurs?
Ancient fungi signaled a planet's collapse 66 million years ago. What are they warning us about today?
After the asteroid, life rebounded in decades, not millennia. Does this rewrite the story of mass extinction?
Fungal Spikes Before and After the Chicxulub Impact: How Volcanism and Asteroid Strikes Shaped the End-Cretaceous Mass Extinction
Overview
Recent research has revealed that a significant global fungal spike occurred in the Late Cretaceous, tens of thousands of years before the Chicxulub asteroid impact. This discovery, led by Rosanna P. Baker and Arturo Casadevall, shows that widespread fungal proliferation was not only a response to catastrophic events like the Permian-Triassic and K/Pg extinctions, but also happened before the asteroid strike. The pre-impact fungal bloom coincided with a global cooling event caused by intense Deccan volcanism. This finding suggests that Earth's ecosystems were already under severe stress before the asteroid impact, highlighting the complex sequence of environmental crises leading to mass extinction.