Ecosystem Jenga: What Tiny Fossils Tell Us About a Massive Extinction

Presented by Dr. Emily Bamforth of the Philip J. Currie Museum, Alberta, March 15, 2023.
Was the bolide (‘meteorite’) impact to blame for the dinosaur mass extinction, or was there already an extinction going on? And why did this bolide impact cause an extinction when other bolide impacts in Earth’s history didn’t? These are questions that palaeontologists have been working to answer for decades, and what Dr. Bamforth discusses in her talk based on research in the Latest Cretaceous Frenchman Formation of Saskatchewan, Canada. In particular, Dr. Bamforth's research discoveries have important connotations for understanding the impact of climate change in today's Sixth Mass Extinction.