Scientists studying the Chicxulub crater in Mexico believe that the asteroid that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago may also have created habitats for new forms of early life. The impact made rocks more porous, which provided niches in which organisms could thrive. These rocks also contained nutrients from water that had been heated in the Earth’s crust. ‘It is hard to believe that the same forces that destroyed 75 per cent of all life may have provided refuges for early life,’ said Professor Joanna Morgan of Imperial College London.
