Fatal asteroid impact for dinosaurs spared sharks

The asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs did little damage to sharks and rays. According to a new study with Swiss participation, their biodiversity only declined by around 10%. +Get the most important news from Switzerland in your inbox The study led by the universities of Zurich and Swansea in Wales and published on Thursday in the journal Current Biology calls into question previous assumptions about the effects of this asteroid impact on life in the oceans. For their study, the team compiled a new dataset of fossilised sharks and rays from the last 145 million years. They analysed this data with the help of artificial intelligence (AI). The analysis revealed that the number of shark and ray species had already reached a level comparable to that of today in the Cretaceous period, more than 100 million years ago. The asteroid impact therefore only caused a relatively small decline in the number of species. This is in stark contrast to the mass extinction of the dinosaurs ...