TY - JOUR
T1 - Abrupt and massive influx of terrestrial biomarkers into the marine environment at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary, Caravaca, Spain
AU - Arinobu, Tetsuya
AU - Ishiwatari, Ryoshi
AU - Kaiho, Kunio
AU - Lamolda, Marcos A.
AU - Seno, Hiroshi
N1 - Funding Information:
We thank Dr. D. Brincat, and Dr. K. Yamada for their valuable suggestions, and Professor C.R.C. Paul for constructive comments. We thank Dr. P.A. Mayer and an anonymous reviewer for their useful comments, which have improved our contribution. This work was partly supported by a grant-in-aid for scientific research from the Ministry of Education, Science and Culture of Japan.
PY - 2005/8/15
Y1 - 2005/8/15
N2 - The mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary ca. 65 million years ago caused a major change in the nature and abundance of global life in Earth history. We present the first vertical high-resolution records of molecular distributions of n-fatty acids across the K/T boundary at Caravaca (Spain). The results reveal that the first basal thin horizon (0 to + 0.5 cm; 0 = K/T boundary) of the K/T boundary-clay layer showed as much as a ∼35-fold increase in concentrations of terrestrial long-chain n-fatty acids (≥ C 20), representative of an eight-fold increase in mass accumulation rate, compared with the subjacent Cretaceous layers. Thereafter concentrations rapidly declined back to almost pre-boundary values within + 3 cm above the K/T boundary. The abrupt increase in supply of terrestrial organic matter into the marine environment at the K/T boundary could have been caused by an enhanced riverine flux, probably due to heavy rains associated with global warming, combined with enhanced fragments of terrestrial higher-plants withered by acid rain and/or by temporal darkness and cooling.
AB - The mass extinction at the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K/T) boundary ca. 65 million years ago caused a major change in the nature and abundance of global life in Earth history. We present the first vertical high-resolution records of molecular distributions of n-fatty acids across the K/T boundary at Caravaca (Spain). The results reveal that the first basal thin horizon (0 to + 0.5 cm; 0 = K/T boundary) of the K/T boundary-clay layer showed as much as a ∼35-fold increase in concentrations of terrestrial long-chain n-fatty acids (≥ C 20), representative of an eight-fold increase in mass accumulation rate, compared with the subjacent Cretaceous layers. Thereafter concentrations rapidly declined back to almost pre-boundary values within + 3 cm above the K/T boundary. The abrupt increase in supply of terrestrial organic matter into the marine environment at the K/T boundary could have been caused by an enhanced riverine flux, probably due to heavy rains associated with global warming, combined with enhanced fragments of terrestrial higher-plants withered by acid rain and/or by temporal darkness and cooling.
KW - Biomarker
KW - Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
KW - Fatty acid
KW - Terrestrial influx
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U2 - 10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.03.032
DO - 10.1016/j.palaeo.2005.03.032
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:23044480136
VL - 224
SP - 108
EP - 116
JO - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
JF - Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
SN - 0031-0182
IS - 1-3
ER -