Abstract
Summary The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary extinction represents one of the most severe, with approximately 75% of life on earth suffering extinction. An new terrestrial mean annual air temperature (MAAT) record based on branched tetraether data from southern Saskatchewan (Canada) permits, for the first time, the recognition of a distinct episode of rapid global warming in the first approximately 1 ka of the Paleogene, which is attributed to a rapid release of CO2 at or around the K-Pg boundary. Irrespective of the source(s) of CO2, the extinction on land may therefore have been partly driven by MAATs exceeding a threshold for ecosystem resilience. These data are the first in their kind at this resolution, providing new boundary conditions of absolute values, and rates of temperature change. Further studies of terrestrial MAAT at a similar resolution will be essential for demonstrating the unparalleled trends observed in our record to be a global phenomenon.
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