66 million years ago, an asteroid hit the Earth. This led to soot, dust and sulfur rising into the atmosphere and years of darkness and global cold took hold of the planet – and the dinosaurs became extinct.
But now 31-year-old Katerina Rodiouchkina, a postdoctoral fellow at Luleå University of Technology, can show that sulfur and the resulting extreme cold probably played a smaller role in the mass extinction than previous research had shown.
Five times less sulfur
In five different places in the world, the researchers have measured in sediments, i.e. material collected on lake and seabeds, how much sulfur was released into the air.
– It was five times less than previously estimated, says Katerina Rodiouchkina.
This means that the temperature drop may not have been as dramatic as the researchers previously thought.
Changing history
Rodiouchkina’s research has strengthened many of her colleagues’ theories that the dust that rose into the atmosphere and caused a lack of light likely had more of an impact on the mass extinction.
– This means that we understand more about how the mammals were able to survive and how we humans came to be. Therefore, it is important research and this changes quite a lot.
Katerina Rodiouchkina has been interested in dinosaurs all her life and as a young PhD student she is now involved in rewriting history.
– It’s pretty cool.