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Article: Evidence for the recovery of terrestrial ecosystems ahead of marine primary production following a biotic crisis at the Cretaceous-Tertiary boundary
- Article from:
- Journal of the Geological Society
- Article date:
- September 1, 2001
- Author:
CopyrightCopyright Geological Society Publishing House Sep 2001. Provided by ProQuest LLC. (Hide copyright information)
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The fossil record demonstrates that mass extinction across the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary is more severe in the marine than the terrestrial realm. We hypothesize that terrestrial ecosystems were able
to recover faster than their marine counterparts. To test this hypothesis, we measured sedimentary delta^sup 13^C as a tracer for global carbon cycle changes and compared it with palaeovegetational changes reconstructed from palynomorphs and cuticles across the K-T boundary at Sugarite, New Mexico, USA. Different patterns of perturbation and timescales of recovery of isotopic and palaeobotanical records indicate that the delta^sup 13^C excursion reflects the longer recovery time of ...