The Day The Dinosaurs Died

Summary

Summary of NPR’s Up First Episode: "The Day The Dinosaurs Died"

Podcast Information

• Title: Up First from NPR
• Host/Author: NPR
• Episode: The Day The Dinosaurs Died
• Release Date: June 1, 2025

Overview In the episode titled "The Day The Dinosaurs Died," NPR's Up First delves into the profound events surrounding the fifth mass extinction event that occurred approximately 66 million years ago. This catastrophic event led to the demise of around 50% of Earth's plant and animal species, including the iconic dinosaurs. The episode explores recent scientific discoveries at the Edelman Fossil Park and Museum of Rowan University in Mantua, New Jersey, shedding new light on the precise moments following the asteroid impact that triggered this mass extinction.

Key Sections

1. Introduction to the Mass Extinction Event

   • Aisha Rascoe opens the episode by setting the stage for the fifth mass extinction, traditionally attributed to an asteroid impact that wiped out the dinosaurs. However, recent discoveries suggest a more nuanced sequence of events immediately following the impact.
   • Timestamp [00:00]: "About 66 million years ago, something huge happened on our planet. It's known as the fifth mass extinction event and it wiped out some 50% of plants and animals on Earth."

2. Edelman Fossil Park and Museum: A Hub for New Discoveries

   • The Edelman Fossil Park and Museum, recently opened to the public, serves as both a museum and an active fossil dig site. It allows visitors to engage directly with paleontology by exploring the quarry in search of fossils.
   • Timestamp [00:50]: "Mantua, New Jersey is the site of a new paleontology museum and fossil dig site where scientists are discovering exciting new clues about what happened in the days and even hours after the asteroid hit."

3. Interview with Minouche Zamarodi

   • Aisha Rascoe interviews Minouche Zamarodi, host of the TED Radio Hour, who shares her firsthand experience visiting the fossil site and museum.
   • Timestamp [02:43]: "I'm here with Minouche Zamarodi, host of the TED Radio Hour to talk about her reporting from the Edelman Fossil park and what it can teach us."

4. Ken Lacovara and the Discovery of the Extinction Layer

   • Ken Lacovara, a renowned paleontologist and founder of the museum, provides insights into the site’s significance. He recounts the discovery of a 66 million-year-old bone bed, which serves as a critical record of the asteroid impact's immediate aftermath.
   • Timestamp [05:05]: "At the bottom of the pit, Ken discovered a 66 million year old bone bed... So Ken calls this the extinction layer. This bone bed... essentially documents the day that the asteroid hit the Earth and caused the fifth extinction."

5. Details of the Asteroid Impact and Its Aftermath

   • The discussion shifts to the mechanics of the asteroid impact, including the formation of the Chicxulub crater and the subsequent global effects.
   • Timestamp [06:39]: "The asteroid impact happens 1500 miles away from here, off the Yucatan Peninsula... it's roughly the size of Massachusetts."
   • Timestamp [07:15]: "Within the first hour is global temperatures get up somewhere between toaster oven and pizza oven. So the dinosaurs... are functionally extinct within an hour after that impact."

6. Formation of the Bone Bed and Global Fallout

   • Ken Lacovara explains how the immediate destruction led to a tsunami that swept dead dinosaurs into the ocean, creating the bone bed. He emphasizes the global distribution of asteroid fallout, marked by iridium deposits and shocked quartz.
   • Timestamp [08:27]: "Several hours later, Ken says a tsunami, likely over 130ft high, was, would have crashed into the coast right here, sweeping the dead dinosaurs out to sea, where they'd sink down to the ocean floor, creating a bone bed."
   • Timestamp [09:02]: "We have little glass spherules that rain down from the sky... and we have a spike in the level of the metal iridium... making this the best window on the planet into that pivotal, calamitous moment."

7. Public Engagement and Educational Goals

   • The museum aims to educate the public, especially children, about Earth's deep history and the fragility of its ecosystems. Ken Lacovara uses analogies like a thousand-page book to illustrate the concept of deep time and humanity's brief yet impactful presence.
   • Timestamp [11:26]: "He likes to use this analogy... we would be the last word, the last word in the whole book. That is how limited our time here has been."
   • Timestamp [11:41]: "He wants to give that to everyone, especially kids, and start to feel this connection to time, to history, to the planet."

8. Minouche Zamarodi's Personal Experience

   • Minouche Zamarodi shares her personal moment of finding a fossil at the site, highlighting the profound connection between humans and Earth's ancient past.
   • Timestamp [12:56]: "You just found a 66 million year old fossil sponge."
   • Timestamp [14:07]: "It was almost too easy, Aisha. Like I reached down and there it was and there's this crazy time travel that happens, that you are holding this moment of life that has existed in the dirt, like in your hand."

9. Conclusion and Final Thoughts

   • The episode wraps up with reflections on the importance of preserving scientific sites and fostering a deeper appreciation for Earth's history. Aisha Rascoe encourages listeners to visit the museum and engage with the stories of the past.
   • Timestamp [15:22]: "To learn more about paleontologist Ken Lacovara's work at the Edelman Fossil park and Museum, check out their episode the Day the Dinosaurs Died."

Notable Quotes

• Aisha Rascoe [00:00]: "About 66 million years ago, something huge happened on our planet."
• Minouche Zamarodi [05:05]: "This bone bed... essentially documents the day that the asteroid hit the Earth and caused the fifth extinction."
• Ken Lacovara [07:15]: "Within the first hour is global temperatures get up somewhere between toaster oven and pizza oven."
• Aisha Rascoe [11:07]: "I did not realize it happened that fast. That is shocking."
• Minouche Zamarodi [14:07]: "It's almost too easy... you are holding this moment of life that has existed in the dirt, like in your hand."

Insights and Conclusions

• Scientific Advancement: The Edelman Fossil Park and Museum provides unprecedented access to fossils from the exact moment of the asteroid impact, offering new insights into the rapidity and scale of the mass extinction event.

• Educational Value: By allowing public access to fossil digs, the museum fosters a hands-on learning environment that connects visitors, especially younger generations, to Earth's deep history.

• Human Responsibility: The episode draws parallels between the ancient mass extinction and current environmental challenges, highlighting humanity's role in potentially triggering the next mass extinction through activities like climate change.

• Preservation of Knowledge: Emphasizing the meticulous efforts to document and preserve fossils, the episode underscores the importance of safeguarding scientific discoveries for future research and understanding.

Final Thoughts NPR’s Up First episode, "The Day The Dinosaurs Died," offers a compelling exploration of one of Earth's most significant extinction events through the lens of recent paleontological discoveries. By combining expert interviews, firsthand accounts, and vivid descriptions of the fossil site, the episode provides listeners with a nuanced understanding of the events that led to the end of the dinosaur era and the profound lessons it holds for the present and future of our planet.

Transcript

[Aisha Rascoe]

Aisha I'm Aisha Rascoe and you're listening to the Sunday Story from Up first, where we go beyond the news to bring you one big story. About 66 million years ago, something huge happened on our planet. It's known as the fifth mass extinction event and it wiped out some 50% of plants and animals on Earth. You probably know the basics of the story. An asteroid struck and killed off all the dinosaurs, but recently scientists have been uncovering more details about what really happened at that pivotal moment in history. Mantua, New Jersey is the site of a new paleontology museum and fossil dig site where scientists are discovering exciting new clues about what happened in the days and even hours after the asteroid hit. The Edelman Fossil park and Museum of Rowan University opened this spring. Bring to the public and now anyone who visits has the chance to go down into the quarry to find fossils themselves. When we come back, we go to the fossil site and find out what happened on that fateful day. Stay with us.

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[Aisha Rascoe]

We're back with the Sunday Story and I'm here with Minouche Zamarodi, host of the TED Radio Hour to talk about her reporting from the Edelman Fossil park and what it can teach us. Minouche, welcome to the show.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Oh thanks Aisha. Glad to be here.

[Aisha Rascoe]

So you visited the dig site and the museum before it was open to the public. You got a little sneak preview, and you got a tour from Ken Lacovara, the renowned paleontologist who founded the museum. What was that like?

[Minouche Zamarodi]

It was a big surprise, Aisha, because this site is tucked behind a strip mall. It is New Jersey, after all. So there's like a Lowe's hardware store and a Chick Fil a. And you drive around the bend behind the mall, and there's this beautiful museum with a huge pit in front of it. And Ken took me down into the pit, and you're there and you're like, well, there's just a pile of dirt down here. Right. But actually, it is full of tiny fossils, mostly of sponges and clams and snails and oysters, but also bone fragments of turtles, sharks, mosasaurs, and even, yes, an occasional dinosaur.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Wow. I mean, that's incredible, because anybody would want to find a little dinosaur piece, right? So how did Ken first discover this site in New Jersey?

[Minouche Zamarodi]

So Ken's actually a Jersey boy, but he spent most of his career traveling all around the globe, discovering some of the biggest fossils ever, including a dinosaur in Argentina that he named Dreadnoughtis. It is bigger than the T. Rex. Anyway, so about 20 years ago, Ken decides to come home and become a professor at nearby Rowan University in New Jersey. And then he hears about this site. It's a. It's a mining quarry. So he starts taking his students down there to get some digging experience, see what they can find. And they would follow the bulldozers around to see if any fossils would turn up. And occasionally they would. And then finally, in 2007, he rented a corner of the pit and he really excavated it, like, properly. And that is when he realized he had a huge discovery on his hands.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, what did he find?

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Well, at the bottom of the pit, ken discovered a 66 million year old bone bed. This is a 6 inch deep layer of dirt that runs across the width of the quarry with over 100,000 fossils from 100 different. Different species from the Cretaceous period. So Ken calls this the extinction layer. This bone bed, Aisha, essentially documents the day that the asteroid hit the Earth and caused the fifth extinction. It is the most significant intact fossil record to date of the death of the dinosaurs. I mean, I did not know all these details of what researchers think happened that day. Is it okay if I play you an excerpt from our episode?

[Aisha Rascoe]

Yeah. Yes, absolutely. Absolutely. Let's listen.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

The ground is teeming with fossils, if you know how to look for them.

[Ken Lacovara]

So most of them are invertebrate fossils. Clams snails, oysters, things like that. We'll have turtles and sharks and mosasaurs and bony fish, the rare dinosaur.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

But in addition to all those fossils, the other key thing that Ken and his team have unearthed is a metal called iridium that's usually only found in asteroids. Ken explained the latest thinking on exactly what happened that day 66 million years ago when an asteroid slammed into the Earth.

[Ken Lacovara]

The asteroid impact happens 1500 miles away from here, off the Yucatan Peninsula in what is now Mexico. It blasts a crater in the Earth's crust. It's about 110 miles across by 12 miles deep. So that's roughly the size of Massachusetts.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Say, eight and a half minutes after the asteroid hits, a magnitude 10.3 earthquake rolls across the continent, probably knocking the largest dinosaurs down. But the deadliest moment comes about 16 minutes after the asteroid, all that material.

[Ken Lacovara]

Is blasted up through the atmosphere, goes into low Earth orbit. It's pulverized into maybe millimeter sized pieces, but it still has all the mass. So you've given that mass a tremendous amount of potential gravitational energy. When that stuff comes back in, it's got to balance the energy books. And the result that day, within the first hour is global temperatures get up somewhere between toaster oven and pizza oven. So the dinosaurs that have dominated Earth's terrestrial ecosystems for 165 million years, I think are functionally extinct within an hour after that impact.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

An hour. Do we know that for sure?

[Ken Lacovara]

Well, here's what we know. I mean, all dinosaurs lived on land. Well, that day, if you can't do what little mammals did, or crocodiles or lizards or turtles, if you can't get into a burrow somewhere, dig underground somewhere, well, it's between toaster oven and pizza oven. You die on the surface of the Earth that day. If you don't have a place to hide. And it doesn't look like the dinosaurs had a place to hide, were there a few stragglers that, you know, maybe were at the mouth of a cave or, you know, swimming at the time? Sure, but I think they were functionally extinct at that moment.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Several hours later, Ken says a tsunami, likely over 130ft high, was, would have crashed into the coast right here, sweeping the dead dinosaurs out to sea, where they'd sink down to the ocean floor, creating a bone bed.

[Ken Lacovara]

A bone bed that is from the exact moment of the asteroid impact. In fact, it's the only place in the world where you can see a complete death assemblage of many, many species that are victims of that Event with the fallout from the asteroid.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

We walk around the site to get a different vantage point. And Ken says that the fallout from the asteroid, tiny pieces of it, have been found in over 350 sites around the world.

[Ken Lacovara]

But just from the ash, just from the material that falls from the sky, to date, the fossil occurrences in that layer have been very, very meager. There's some fish scales in Belgium. There's a pile of paddlefish and a dinosaur leg in North Dakota. That's about it. This site here that you're looking at has an entire collapsed ecosystem. At that moment, We've recovered over 100,000 fossils representing over 100 species, and they are interbedded with the fallout from that impact that happened off the coast of Mexico. So we have little glass spherules that rain down from the sky, little grains of what we call shocked corn, quartz. And we have a spike in the level of the metal iridium, which is very, very rare in the crust of the earth, but very much more abundant in asteroids. And so this makes this the best window on the planet into that pivotal, calamitous moment that wiped out the dinosaurs and really made the modern world as we know it.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Why here?

[Ken Lacovara]

Well, I mean, it was everywhere. We happened to have those deposits preserved here, and then we had a quarry here because of the mining operations. Since the first one of those that have been found.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Are there any others?

[Ken Lacovara]

Oh, there must be. You could probably go under the Lowe's and find these same deposits or the chick fil a.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Or how do you stop yourself from just, like, wanting to dig up everywhere here?

[Ken Lacovara]

Well, I kind of do, but, you know, it's taken us 14 years to excavate only 250 square meters. And these fossils are very important to science. And so we, you know, we excavate these for ourselves, but for future scientists as well. And so we have to document everything very carefully, curate the material very carefully, make sure it's preserved forever so that scientists 200 years from now can study these same fossils.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I did not realize it happened that fast. Like, that is shocking. I thought it was, like, months and maybe a year and that the world could get that hot that fast. I mean, it makes me think of, like, the Land before time. You know, that movie?

[Minouche Zamarodi]

I love that show.

[Aisha Rascoe]

It's just like, oh, my gosh. So what's the bigger picture here? Like, what does Ken Lacovara hope people come away with after visiting this museum and the fossil site? Yeah.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

So the museum and the pit, they just open to the public. And what he really wants is people to come and touch the earth and really get a sense of just how long this planet has been around. You know, this idea of deep time. Ken likes to use this analogy. So, like, let's say you have a thousand page book that represents the entire history of the planet. When it comes to the human experience, he says we would be the last word, the last word in the whole book. That is how limited our time here has been. And even though we haven't been here for very long, we humans have used that short time to wreak havoc. And he says we have actually started the next mass extinction with climate change. But he thinks that if you love something, if you know something, you will work to protect it. And he hopes to help people get to know and love planet Earth. Okay, well.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, that is a beautiful sentiment, right? It is. I have to ask, when you were there, did you find a fossil?

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Well, yes, I needed a little coaching from Ken, to be honest. So let's hear my big moment here.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Yeah, okay. Yes, let's do that.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

So what do I do?

[Ken Lacovara]

Well, so you're looking for things that used to be alive. So you want to look for the hallmarks of life, which is pattern, form, symmetry. If you find something that looks like a random clump of dirt, it's probably a random clump of dirt. Right? Okay, so there are fossils right here. I see some fossils right here.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

You see them just like I do.

[Ken Lacovara]

I see fossils everywhere. So there you go, you found your fresh fossil.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

That's it. That was easy.

[Ken Lacovara]

This is a fossil sponge. So a sponge is a little filter feeding organism that lives on the sea floor. They draw in water and they have these little cilia, these little hairs, and they, they filter feed what's in the water. And you just found a 66 million year old fossil sponge.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

What?

[Ken Lacovara]

Yep.

[Aisha Rascoe]

That's amazing. Oh, that's, that's, that's crazy, right? I mean, 66 million years old and you're holding it in your hands.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Mm, mm.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I mean, you know that like to be able to touch history like that, it has to be really like, what effect did it have on you?

[Minouche Zamarodi]

I think it had exactly that effect. Touching the Earth, it was almost too easy, Aisha. Like I reached down and there it was and there's this crazy time travel that happens, that you are holding this moment of life that has existed in the dirt, like in your hand. He wants to give that to everyone, especially kids, and start to feel this connection to time, to history, to the planet, really an attack. And that is exactly what I got.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Well, thank you, Minouche, for sharing this with us. I learned a lot.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Oh good. Yes, I did, too. You have to take your kids, Aisha. It's amazing.

[Aisha Rascoe]

I will. I'll try to convince them. I got family in Jersey, so we'll see.

[Minouche Zamarodi]

Perfect.

[Aisha Rascoe]

Yes. That's Minouche Zomorodi. She is the host of NPR's TED Radio Hour. To learn more about paleontologist Ken Lacovara's work at the Edelman Fossil park and Museum, check out their episode the Day the Dinosaurs Died. This episode of the Sunday Story was produced by Andrew Mambo and Hersha Nahada with help from James Delahousy. It was edited by Liana Simstrom and Sanaz Meshkimpur. Jimmy Keeley mastered the episode. The Sunday Story team includes Justine Yan and Jennifer Schmidt. Irene Noguchi is our executive producer. I'm Aisha Rascoe. Up first is back tomorrow with all the news you need to start your week. Until then, have a great rest of your weekend.

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