Extinction at the K-Pg boundary

earthlike_planet-medium — Illustration courtesy NASA/JPL

CU professor Doug Robertson and a multidisciplinary team argue afresh that a global firestorm swept the planet in the hours after a mountain-sized asteroid vaporized above the Yucatan, 66 million years ago. When the blown-out rock missiled back to earth, Robertson says the atmosphere became so hot the whole world burned. Almost every organism above ground and in the air perished. We talk to Dr. Robertson about that terrible day and how some species reemerged. His team just published their research in the Journal of Geophysical Research-Biogeosciences.

Host: Jim Pullen
Executive Producer: Shelley Schlender

Listen to the show:

Everything died under a broiling sky