Science journalism's obligation to truth. The site, after all, does not conclusively prove that the asteroid's impact actually caused the dinosaurs' demise, reported Science. An aspiring novelist, he attended The Ohio State University studying English and They had breathed in early debris that fell into water, in the seconds or minutes before death. Please make a tax-deductible gift today. Astonishment, skepticism greet fossils claimed to record dinosaur-killing asteroid impact. It is not even clear whether the massive waves were able to traverse the entire Interior Seaway. When we look at the preservation of the leg and the skin around the articulated bones, we're talking on the day of impact or right before. The site was originally discovered in 2008 by University of North Georgia Professor Steve Nicklas and field paleontologist Rob Sula. November 5, 2015. With the exception of some ectothermic species such as the ancestors of the modern leatherback sea turtle and crocodiles, no tetrapods weighing more than 25kg (55lb) survived. . This means that the skeletons located there are older than the asteroid that hit the earth, suggesting that some other event, like widespread volcanic eruptions or even climate change, did the dinosaurs in even before the asteroid appeared. Eighteen months before publication of the peer-reviewed PNAS paper in 2019[1] DePalma and his colleagues presented two conference papers on fossil finds at Tanis on 23 October 2017 at the annual meeting of the Geological Society of America. 2023 American Association for the Advancement of Science. Asked where McKinney conducted his isotopic analyses, DePalma did not provide an answer. Th As of April 2019, reported findings include: The hundreds of fish remains are distributed by size, and generally show evidence of tetany (a body posture related to suffocation in fish), suggesting strongly that they were all killed indiscriminately by a common suffocating cause that affected the entire population. 2 / 4: Robert A. DePalma, a paleontologist at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History and a graduate student at the University of Kansas. At the site, called Tanis, the researchers say they have discovered the chaotic debris left when tsunamilike waves surged up a river valley. Tobin says the PNAS paper is densely packed with detail from paleontology, sedimentology, geochemistry, and more. A version of this story appeared in Science, Vol 378, Issue 6625. DePalma did not respond to a Gizmodo request for comment, but he told Science, We absolutely would not, and have not ever, fabricated data and/or samples to fit this or another teams results., On December 9, a note was added to DePalmas paper on the Scientific Reports website. During described the findings in her 2018 masters thesis, a copy of which she shared with DePalma in February 2019. Raw machine data are seldom supplied to end users (myself included) who contract for isotope analyses from a lab that does them., Cochran says DePalma erred in not including these data and their origins in his original manuscript, but the bottom line is that I have no reason to distrust the basic data or in any way believe that it was fabricated., Eiler disputes this. "I just hope this hasn't been oversensationalized.". The media article was published several days before an accompanying research paper on the site came out in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Until a few years ago, some researchers had suspected the last dinosaurs vanished thousands of years before the catastrophe. In December 2021, a team of paleontologists published data . At his suggestion, she wrote a formal letter to Scientific Reports. Top editors give you the stories you want delivered right to your inbox each weekday. Its author, Douglas Preston, who learned of the find from DePalma in 2013, writes that DePalma's team found dinosaur bones caught up in the 1.3-meter-thick deposit, some so high in the sequence that DePalma suspects the carcasses were floating in the roiling water. Robert DePalma. Something is fishy here, says Mauricio Barbi, a high energy physicist at the University of Regina who specializes in applying physics methods to paleontology. Could this provide evidence to the theory that an asteroid did indeed cause the mass extinction of the dinosaurs? Robert DePalma is a vertebrate paleontologist, based out of Florida Atlantic University (FAU), whose focus on terrestrial life of the late Cretaceous, the Chicxulub asteroid impact, and the evolution of theropod dinosaurs, was sparked by a passionate fascination with the past. Still, people's ardor for this group of reptiles is so passionate that 12% of Americans surveyed in an Ipsos poll would resurrect T. rexes and the rest of these mysterious creatures if it were possible. He did send Science a document containing what he says are McKinneys data. In the early 1980s, the discovery of a clay layer rich in iridium, an element found in meteorites, at the very end of the rock record of the Cretaceous at sites around the world led researchers to link an asteroid to the End Cretaceous mass extinction. In the early 1980s, the discovery of a clay layer rich in iridium, an element found in meteorites, at the very end of the rock record of the Cretaceous at sites around the world led researchers to link an asteroid to the End Cretaceous mass extinction. Another question about dinosaurs is what caused their extinction and there are many theories about that, too. The 112-mile Chicxulub crater, located on the Yucatn Peninsula, contains the same mineral iridium as the KT layer, and it's often cited as further proof that a giant asteroid was responsible for killing dinosaurs (perBoredom Therapy). (Formula and details)The 2011 Thoku earthquake and tsunami was estimated at magnitude 9.1, so the energy released by the Chicxulub earthquakes, estimated at up to magnitude 11.5, may have been up to 101.5 x (11.59.1) = 3981 times larger. Help News from Science publish trustworthy, high-impact stories about research and the people who shape it. Manning confirms rumors that the study was initially submitted to a journal with a higher impact factor before it was accepted at PNAS. But two months before Durings paper would be published, a paper came out in Scientific Reports reaching essentially the same conclusion, based on an entirely separate data set, Science reported. JPS.C.2021.0002: The Paleontology, Geology and Taphonomy of the Tooth Draw Deposit; Hell Creek Formation (Maastrictian), Butte County, South Dakota. We absolutely would not, and have not ever, fabricated data and/or samples to fit this or another teams results, he wrote in an email to Science. If we've learned anything from the COVID-19 pandemic, it's that we cannot wait for a crisis to respond. A bad day for dinosaurs was the subject of an engaging hour-and-a-half for both paleontologists and NASA researchers. The mud and sand are dotted with glassy spherulesmany caught in the gills of the fishisotopically dated to 65.8 million years ago. Now, Robert DePalma, a paleontologist at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History and a graduate student at the University of Kansas, claims to have unveiled an unprecedented time capsule of this . Could NASA's Electric Airplane Make Aviation More Sustainable? Robert DePalma Frederich Cichocki Manuel Dierick Robert Feeney: JPS.C.10.0001: Volume 1, 2007 "How to Make a Fossil: Part 2 - Dinosaur Mummies and Other Soft Tissue" . The first documents a turtle fossil found at Tanis, killed by impalement by a tree branch, and found in the upper of two units of surge deposit, bracketed by ejecta. But McKinneys former department chair, Pablo Sacasa, says he is not aware of McKinney ever collaborating with laboratories at other institutions. American, said in a 2019 tweet that the findings from the site "have met with a good deal of skepticism from the paleontology community." . "His line between commercial and academic work is not as clean as it is for other people," says one geologist who asked not to be named. Sir David Attenborough presents this landmark documentary which brings to life, in unprecedented detail, the lost world of the very last days of the dinosaurs. The latter paper was published by a team led by Robert DePalma, Durings former collaborator and a paleontologist now at the University of Manchester. . Instead, much faster seismic waves from the magnitude 10 11.5 earthquakes[1]:p.8 probably reached the Hell Creek area as soon as ten minutes after the impact, creating seiche waves between 10100m (33328ft) high in the Western Interior Seaway. He later wrote a piece for the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. DePalma says his team also invited Durings team to join DePalmas ongoing study. When DePalmas paper was published just over 3 months later, During says she soon noticed irregularities in the figures, and she was concerned the authors had not published their raw data. Still, when During submitted her manuscript to Nature on 22 June 2021, she listed DePalma as the studys second author. In my view, it was an intentional omission which leads me to question the credibility of data. Steve Brusatte, a paleontologist at the University of Edinburgh, says, There is a simple way for the DePalma team to address these concerns, and that is to publish the raw data output from their stable isotope analyses.. If Tanis is all it is claimed to be, that debateand many others about this momentous day in Earth's historymay be over. He is survived by his loving wife,. Part of the phenomenally fossil-rich Hell Creek Formation, Tanis sat on the shore of the ancient Western Interior Seaway some 65 million years ago. Robert DePalma, a paleontologist at the Palm Beach Museum of Natural History and a graduate student at the University of Kansas, works at a fossil site in North Dakota. The event included waves with at least 10 meters run-up height (the vertical distance a wave travels after it reaches land). By Dave Kindy. They've been presented at meetings in various ways with various associated extraordinary claims," a West Coast paleontologist said to The New Yorker. This directly applies to today. The story of the discoveries is revealed in a new documentary called "Dinosaur Apocalypse," which features naturalist Sir David Attenborough and paleontologist Robert DePalma and airs . [20], Later discoveries included large primitive feathers 3040cm long with 3.5mm quills believed to come from large dinosaurs; broken remains from almost all known Hell Creek dinosaur groups, including some incredibly rare hatchling and intact egg with embryo fossils; fossil pterosaurs for which no other fossils exist at that time; drowned ant nests with ants inside and chambers filled with asteroid debris; and burrows of small mammals living at the site immediately after the impact. DePalma gave the name Tanis to both the site and the river. With David Attenborough, Robert DePalma, Phillip Manning. "I hope this is all legitI'm just not 100% convinced yet," says Thomas Tobin, a geologist at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa. Other papers describing the site and its fossils are in progress. The situation was first reported by the publication Science last month. [8] Following suspicions of manipulating data, a complained was lodged against DePalma with the University of Manchester. Others defend DePalma, like his co-author, Mark Richards, a geophysicist at the University of California, Berkeley. What's potentially so special about this site? Tanis is a significant site because it appears to record the events from the first minutes until . Robert DePalma reveals the Tanis site discoveries he couldn't talk about in Part One. The email, which came after Science started to inquire about the case, says their concerns remain under investigation. Earliest evidence of horseback riding found in eastern cowboys, Funding woes force 500 Women Scientists to scale back operations, Lawmakers offer contrasting views on how to compete with China in science, U.K. scientists hope to regain access to EU grants after Northern Ireland deal, Astronomers stumble in diplomatic push to protect the night sky, Satellites spoiling more and more Hubble images, Pablo Neruda was poisoned to death, a new forensic report suggests, Europes well-preserved bog bodies surrender their secrets, Teens leukemia goes into remission after experimental gene-editing therapy. Artist's rendering of a large asteroid hitting Earth. All rights reserved. DePalma and his group knew the creature could not have survived in North Dakota's fresh waters during the prehistoric age. They presumably formed from droplets of molten rock launched into the atmosphere at the impact site, which cooled and solidified as they plummeted back to Earth. No part of Durings paper had any bearing on the content of our study, DePalma says. It needs to be explained. [26][27][28][29] A paper published in Scientific Reports in December 2021 suggested that the impact took place in the Spring or Early Summer, based on the cyclical isotope curves found in acipensieriform fish bones at the site, and other evidence. Based on the chemical isotope signatures and bone growth patterns found in fossilized fish collected at Tanis, a renowned fossil site in North Dakota, During had concluded the asteroid that ended the dinosaur era 65 million years ago struck Earth when it was spring in the Northern Hemisphere. The Hell Creek Formation is a well-known and much-studied fossil-bearing formation (geological region) of mostly Upper Cretaceous and some lower Paleocene rock, that stretches across portions of Montana, North Dakota, South Dakota, and Wyoming in North America. Ritchie Hall | Earth, Energy & Environment Center 1414 Naismith Drive, Room 254 Lawrence, KS 66045 geology@ku.edu 785-864-4974 [2][3] The full paper introducing Tanis was widely covered in worldwide media on 29 March 2019, in advance of its official publication three days later. Today, the layer of debris, ash and soot resulting from the asteroid strike is preserved in the Earth's sediment. Special to The Forum. There is considerable detail for times greater than hundreds of thousands of years either side of the event, and for certain kinds of change on either side of the K-Pg boundary layer. Isaac Schultz. The extinction event caused by this impact began the Cenozoic, in which mammals - including humans - would eventually come to dominate life on Earth. In December 2021, DePalma and his colleagues published an important paper . Even as a child, DePalma wondered what the Cretaceous was like. These tables are not the same as raw data produced by the mass spectrometer named in the papers methods section, but DePalma noted the datas credibility had been verified by two outside researchers, paleontologist Neil Landman at the American Museum of Natural History and geochemist Kirk Cochran at Stony Brook University. DePalma may also flout some norms of paleontology, according to The New Yorker, by retaining rights to control his specimens even after they have been incorporated into university and museum collections. All rights reserved. Was it a fierce volcanic eruption that toppled these creatures? DePalma holds the lease to the Tanis site, which sits on private land, and controls access to it. Nicklas also indicates that "in 2012 we decided to try to find an academic paleontologist who had the necessary interest, time, and the ability to excavate the site A good friend of ours, Ronnie Frithiof, recommended Robert DePalma. DePalma took over excavation rights on it several years ago from commercial fossil prospectors who discovered the site in 2008. Tanis is a site of paleontological interest in southwestern North Dakota, United States. Paleontologist Robert DePalma, featured in PBS's "Dinosaur Apocalypse," discusses an astonishing trove of fossils. The raw data are missing, he says, because the scientist who ran the analyses died years prior to the papers publication, and DePalma has been unable to recover them from his deceased collaborators laboratory. Page numbers in this section refer to those papers. [1]:p.8, Although Tanis and Chicxulub were connected by the remaining Interior Seaway, the massive water waves from the impact area were probably not responsible for the deposits at Tanis. "Capturing the event in that much detail is pretty remarkable," concedes Blair Schoene, a geologist at Princeton University, but he says the site does not definitively prove that the impact event was the exclusive trigger of the mass extinction. "The thing we can do is determine the likelihood that it died the day the meteor struck. The paper cleared peer review at PNAS within about 4 months. What we do know is that during the Jurassic period, great global upheaval occurred with increases in temperature, surging sea levels, and less humidity. He says he did so because the isotopic data had been supplied as a non-digital data set by a collaborator, archaeologist Curtis McKinney of Miami Dade College, who died in 2017. The fish contain isotope records and evidence of how the animals growth corresponded to the season (tree rings do the same thing). The iridium-enriched CretaceousPaleogene boundary, which separates the Cretaceous from the Cenozoic, is distinctly visible as a discontinuous thin marker above and occasionally within the formation. "No one is an expert on all of those subjects," he says, so it's going to take a few months for the research community to digest the findings and evaluate whether they support such extraordinary conclusions. The seiche waves exposed and covered the site twice, as millions of tiny microtektite droplets and debris from the impact were arriving on ballistic trajectories from their source in what is now the Yucatn Peninsula. Robert has been an Adjunct Professor in the Geosciences . [1]:p.8192 The river flowed Eastward (other than impact driven waves),[1]:p.8192 with inland being to the West; Tanis itself was therefore in an ancient river valley close to the Westward shore of the Interior Seaway. While DePalma corrected his claim, his reputation still took a hit. The CretaceousPaleogene ("K-Pg" or "K-T") extinction event around 66 million years ago wiped out all non-avian dinosaurs and many other species. The findings are the work of paleontologist Robert DePalma, who has previously attracted controversy. FAU's Robert DePalma, senior author and an adjunct professor in the Department of Geosciences, Charles E. Schmidt College of Science, and a doctoral student at the . The exceptional nature of the findings and conclusions have led some scientists to await further scrutiny by the scientific community before agreeing that the discoveries at Tanis have been correctly understood. Miami Dade does not have an operational mass spectrometer, suggesting McKinney would have had to perform the isotope analyses underlying the paper at another facility. Although fish fossils are normally deposited horizontally, at Tanis, fish carcasses and tree trunks are preserved haphazardly, some in near vertical orientations, suggesting they were caught up in a large volume of mud and sand that was dumped nearly instantaneously.