Beringian Megafaunal Extinctions at ~37 ka B.P.: Do Micrometeorites Embedded in Fossil Tusks and Skulls Indicate an Extraterrestial Precursor to the Younger Dryas Event?

Details Beringian Megafaunal Extinctions at ~37 ka B.P.: Do Micrometeorites Embedded in Fossil Tusks and Skulls Indicate an Extraterrestial Precursor to the Younger Dryas Event? Beringian Megafaunal Extinctions at ~37 ka B.P.: Do Micrometeorites Embedded in Fossil Tusks and Skulls Indicate an Extraterrestial Precursor to the Younger Dryas Event?

Dec 2009

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2009agufmpp31d1385h&link_type=abstract

American Geophysical Union, Fall Meeting 2009, abstract #PP31D-1385

Other

[0468] Biogeosciences / Natural Hazards, [1028] Geochemistry / Composition Of Meteorites, [1637] Global Change / Regional Climate Change, [6022] Planetary Sciences: Comets And Small Bodies / Impact Phenomena

Scientific paper

Studies of Late Pleistocene megafaunal fossils and their ancient DNA from Beringia (eastern Siberia, Alaska, and the emerged Bering Strait) indicate sharp declines in steppe bison population diversity and horse body size, extinction of the Alaskan wild ass, and local extinctions of brown bear and woolly mammoth genetic lines beginning at about 37 ka B.P. Beringia is also well known for its remarkably preserved Late Pleistocene frozen animal mummies. 14C ages of these mummies are bimodally distributed, having peaks coincident with the earlier ~37 ka B.P., and ~13 ka B.P. Younger Dryas, onset extinction events. Associated with the ~37 ka B.P. event are, for example, the Berezovka mammoth, headless Selerikan horse, steppe bison “Blue Babe”, and baby mammoths “Dima” and “Lyuba”. Analyses of these and other mummies indicate that they died instantly, in mostly healthy condition, with gut contents and high fat reserves indicative of a late summer to autumn season. An assortment of uneaten limbs and other body parts from a variety of species have also been found. Uniformitarian death scenarios inadequately account for the lack of evidence of normal predation and scavenging. Extensive internal injuries (e.g. large bone fractures, hemorrhaging) and apparent rapid burial of the mummies also indicate that something truly unusual happened at the time of these extinction events. We have discovered what appear to be micrometeorites embedded in seven Alaskan mammoth tusks and a Siberian bison skull acquired from commercial sources. 14C ages for five of these fossils have a weighted mean age of 33 ± 2 ka B.P. Laser ablation ICP-MS and XRF analyses of the particles indicate high Fe contents with compositions enriched in Ni and depleted in Ti, similar to Fe meteorites and unlike any natural terrestrial sources. Microprobe analyses of a Fe-Ni sulfide grain from tusk 2 also show that it contains between 3 and 20 weight percent Ni. SEM images and XRF analyses of a bison skull fragment show sharp-edged channels (~0.1 mm across) containing Fe sulfide material with botryoidal texture that appears to have cooled from a molten state. Multiple embedded particles are observed on only one side of the tusk and skull fossils, consistent with micrometeorites coming from a single direction. During recent visits to natural history collections in Berkeley, CA, New York City, and London, UK, embedded Fe-rich particles were uncovered in an additional 13 Alaskan bison, horse, and musk ox skulls, and a Siberian Elasmotherium skull. We propose that the extinctions, embedded micrometeorites, and frozen mummies contemporaneous with the ~37 ka B.P. event all resulted from an airburst (similar to the 1908 Tunguska event), or series of airbursts, across Beringia due to the breakup and deep atmospheric penetration of an Fe-Ni asteroid. The micrometeorites can be envisioned as shrapnel traveling within the blast wave(s). The instantaneous deaths, internal injuries, and possible traumatic amputations and decapitations in megafaunal mummies are consistent with blast injuries related to such a catastrophic scenario.

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