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News from the Caribbean as of
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Traces in Cuba of meteorite crash that destroyed dinosaurs
Wednesday, April 19, 2006
HAVANA, Cuba (AFP): Cuban researchers say there are signs in the center of their island of the mega-meteor that slammed into modern Mexico's Yucatan peninsula 65 million years ago, in what was the beginning of the end for dinosaurs, official media reported Tuesday.
Fossilized remains of oysters and sea urchins have been identified at a late-Cretaceous dig site in the central Cuban province of Sancti Spiritus, ecologist Abel Hernandez, one of a team of researchers working at the site, was quoted as saying.
The fossils "shared with the dinosaurs the colossal catastrophe" and represent part of an "animal guide to the late Cretaceous" period, according to Hernandez.
The meteorite slammed into the Yucatan near Chicxulub with the force of five billion atomic bombs, the scientist was quoted as saying. The impact let loose huge clouds of sulfuric acid and particulate matter that blocked the sun's rays and caused mass extinction of animal and plant species, opening the way to a new geologic era, the report said.
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