Life Bounced Back Fast After Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid, New Study Reveals

• A new study reveals that life on Earth recovered much faster than previously thought after the asteroid impact 66 million years ago that wiped out dinosaurs.
• Researchers used space dust, specifically the helium-3 isotope, as a natural clock to precisely date ocean sediment layers and track the appearance of new species.
• The study found that new species, particularly tiny ocean organisms like foraminifera, began to appear within a few thousand years, and in some cases, recovery started in less than 2,000 years.
• Chris Lowery, a micropaleontologist at the University of Texas at Austin, led the research, analyzing deep-sea sediment cores from the Atlantic and Pacific oceans.
• This discovery challenges previous views on mass extinctions, highlighting the rapid resilience and adaptability of Earth's ecosystems even after global catastrophes.