Gerta Keller - The Truth about Dinosaur Extinction

0:00Welcome. You are listening to Cover to Cover, hosted by Mary Elizabeth Jackson, a show featuring lively conversations with cutting-edge authors from around the globe. From debut to multi-award-winning to inspirational, you will find a new author and book to love. Mary is a special needs advocate, educator, speaker, and an award-winning author who brings that edge to dive deep into the writing world, sharing the journeys behind the stories and tips and tools for all things in the writing world. Now, here's Mary. Hello, everyone, and welcome to Cover to Cover on the Brushwood Media Network. America's number-wins-indicated network. Thank you, Brushwood Media, and thank you to the listeners all around the globe. I'm very excited to be here today. If you like dinosaurs and the mystery of it and maybe solving the mystery of it and all that kind of thing,

1:04we are, you know, we're going to have fun today with Ms. Gerda Keller who has written a book about this. We're going to be discovering things together today, which is great because she is a paleontologist, right? So we are into discovery and searching and learning things. So if you're on social media, please connect with me wherever you are. See if I'm on there. Mary Elizabeth Jackson or Mary E. Jackson 5, and please you can get my website, MaryE Jackson.com. I have free downloadables, my books are there, and also links to the shows as well as information if you're an advocate parent or have a child with sensory challenges. If you're interested in sensory awareness maybe for your office or your school or maybe your sports team who's wanting to become more sensory or wear and friendly for individuals to come to games and events and please contact me. You can go to my website, MaryE Jackson.com, and there is a way to contact me there. If you're interested in a

2:06training on early signs and symptoms of autism and how to help, train staff and help families, you can reach me there as well or you can reach out to the network, Brushwood Media. Now, Gerda Keller is a professor of paleontology and geology and meridus in the department of geosciences at Princeton University, where she has been a 10-year faculty member since 84. She has placed over 260 sign-intifict publications in international journals and is considered a leading member of, she's considered a leading authority and kept on catastrophes. I will get my language here Gerda in a second. Mass extinctions and the biotic and environmental effects of impacts and volcanism. In recent years, her work has received increased recognition and continues to make waves in the mainstream media, including a widely circulated profile in the Atlantic. Now, the book we're discussing today is called Last Extinction. Extinction, the real science

3:09behind the death of the dinosaurs. It's fresh off the market or on the market, fresh out of publicate, printing and publishers weekly just called it scathing and illuminating and said that this makes a mark. Wow, this is so interesting. There's so many questions I have for you, Gerda. Thank you for being here today. How are you? I'm very well. Thank you. I love it. Okay, so I want to just talk about how I'm going to give a little bit of information here. In 1980, a father and son team at the University of California, Berkeley, boldly claimed to have solved one of the most vexing problems in science, the death of the dinosaurs and a paper published in Science Magazine. Their extinction by asteroid impact theory was later buoyed by the discovery of 110-mile impact crater in Mexico. There was just one problem. They were wrong and Gerda Keller scientific discoveries blew their theory to bits. Okay, and I just want everyone to

4:09know out there that all of those last few words were in capital letters. So that means it's very important and we want you to hear. So her discoveries in sedimentary and fossil records proved what really wiped out the dinosaurs. Greenhouse gases from volcanic eruptions in West Central India. They sparked what became known as the dinosaur wars. A contentious debate over what triggered the fifth massive extinction at the end of the crustaceous era, 66 million years ago, in which the impact or learned what happens when you pick a fight with a brilliant woman who isn't afraid to challenge long held beliefs and take on the patriarchy. Okay, so we're dealing with a tough check here. All right, so Gerda, give it to us all. All right, what, you know, how did you even get to this place where this is what I'm going to write about? Well, it took many years, in fact, 15 years. Wow. And it started off, of course, with, well, I should say, I started

5:15on the dinosaurs when I was somewhere in the 70s. And because I never heard about dinosaurs before, and I thought this was quite interesting. And so I, as an undergraduate, I started to look into it. And then I went to Stanford, I, to, to a PhD, and I found that nobody cared about dinosaurs at that point. And so I worked on some other material, namely tiny micro fossils that are known to help us with climate change. And these are, these are so tiny, it's about the size of a fly spec. And they, there are about 70 different species of it. But the problem was that 65 million years ago, these species died out. And they died out in one big giant, okay, a mass extinction.

6:25And only one survived. And that survivor is still around. Because, well, it took me many years to study that. And it ended up, they survived. And we will still survive for the next extinction, because they, they don't seem to die. They are hardy. And they, they live in areas where, basically, where it's all, but almost nothing ever happens in areas where nobody else can live. And so, when they die, here it appears, they appear again. And, and so that is essentially what I have hate to say. That's essentially what is happening today again. They're surviving. And more and more of them are surviving. And those are the species that, well, they will try, try again, until

7:28everything else has died out. And these are micro fossils. Is that what you said? They're micro fossils, yes. And do they have a name? They are called Furemi Nifra, but the question the species name is a long one. Oh, wow. Okay. So, it'd be interesting to look that up and see what they look like. Because I'm sure there's a picture of them, right? Yeah, there are many pictures of it in the book of many things, yes, including, including those species. Right. Oh, my gosh. Well, did you, so you're saying that I want to go back to what you first said when you were, so growing up as a child and everything, you'd never heard of dinosaurs. Where did you grow up? I grew up in Switzerland. Okay. And dinosaurs at that point, nobody cared about. Okay. I never heard of them. Once I, once, when I went to the US to study, well, I heard

8:31about it. And I realized that they were really quite interesting. Yes. And giant, of course. And yes, and giant. And you, so your discovery is, is that it is from greenhouse gases, right? From volcanic, okay. Well, from volcanism. Yes. So tell us what you think happened, exactly. Well, in India, there are these giant volcanic eruptions that have been going on for at least a hundred thousand years. And at first, they were often on. And then as time went on, and we came closer to 65 million years, the mass extinctions increased. Well, in fact, it hit. When I say what happens with volcanism, it's basically when volcanic eruptions

9:33spew out gases and materials and stuff, then it just gets worse and worse as 65 million years comes along. And they were faster. And the eruptions are faster and faster. So fast that there is really nothing else that can survive. And that, that couldn't believe species. I never knew I had one either before, because number one, they're so tiny that nobody really knew about it. And till I looked into smaller species. And then I found that they were all around. They had survived all along. They survived in the worst environments. Environments where they usually don't survive. And they're still doing it today. If there is a lot of pollution, if life has become for most of the species untenable, then that's the species that will be there and thriving. And it's not human.

10:39It's not human. Absolutely not. So that's so interesting. All of that. So you think, I mean, your discovery is that the greenhouse gases in India, there was just an eruption that did it, you know, because I know there are dinosaur bones here in the states. You know, I live in Tennessee. And so there's a lot of bones that have been found in Kentucky and Tennessee. So how does it, you know, did it work? Did it just go across the planet or it's all over? Yes. In India, even during the eruptions, there were thousands of dinosaurs, literally thousands. But India is a very giant continent. So we can and they live usually in environments where there is a good water and warmth and food. Of course. For the dinosaurs. For the dinosaurs. Okay. And then as the eruptions became more rapid and faster, that's when they started to die. And then they died very suddenly because the

11:47eruptions basically killed everything at that point. Except for the micro fossil. Except that one micro fossil. Wow. Okay. Where is the most concentrated area on the planet for dinosaur findings of bones? Is it India? India and US. So. Okay. So what do you think about that? That the that Indian, the US were two of the most concentrated areas for finding dinosaur bones? Have they not been found all over the planet? Yes. Yes and no. Not all over the planet. But but a lot of areas we don't know about. To be interesting to see those areas to see. Yeah. But the most interesting ones are the US and India. So from here, do you have like, I know like you set off in school and you had no idea. This is what you were going to be doing, right? Yes. And how did your family feel about

12:49it? Were they like, what are you doing? Are they like, okay, go for it. This is kind of interesting. I never really got an education. Okay. Because my family was poor and I left Switzerland when I was 17 and and started to explore the world on my own. Because there was nothing else I could do. So I had an interesting life. I did that for 40, for four years. And then I discovered in the US when I took my last trip at that time, I stopped in San Francisco. And it was during the hey days of the flower children days. If you still remember what those were. Yes. The seventies, right? Yes. Yes. And then I was, it was an interesting time. And the students were asking me, so what

13:56are you doing? And I said, I don't do anything. I never studied. So they said, well, go to city college and you can take an entrance exam. And if you're doing well, you can go. And so I did. And I did well. Happened after that. Wow. All history. Yes. So is your family very, you know, supportive of what you've done with your life and your journey? And I'm afraid not. Oh, okay. They never really knew what I was doing. Okay. I'm from a family of a dozen. Wow. That's a big family. That's a big family. Yes. And I was kind of a screwball in many. Oh, I see. I got you. And little do they know you were just this very brilliant human. So that's gonna make a huge

14:56discovery. Wow. That's amazing. That is amazing. What was, I know you probably have a lot of things on your journey, especially discovering dinosaurs that was very exciting. And, and I don't know, do you have one that stands out from any of the others? Can you ask the question again? I do. Okay. Just just of your discoveries, like, you know, looking for the dinosaurs and then discovering the micro fossils and things like that. What is something that really, I mean, I don't I guess this is not maybe the best question, because what stands out is a very significant thing to your memory or what of your favorite women? Working in India and making many different discoveries. Had never been made before. That is amazing. And those were absolutely fantastic. It was just wonderful. Wow. And we learned so much from it that, well, that's what India is today.

16:06And that's why I'm still working in India. Okay. And you hope to keep discovering, don't you? Absolutely. Yeah. Oh, my gosh. It's a great fun. I've ever had. Oh, yes. I know when I was a child, I wanted to be a paleontologist. So we used to stick around in our backyard for things, you know, and hoping we could we would find something, you know, and I think we used to find what was called Indian money. And I know my kids have found that kind of stuff up here too. But have there been a discovery during the time that you have researched of human few human beings being there with the dinosaurs? The dinosaurs died out 65 million years before the human beings even appeared. Okay. So no caveman running from a dinosaur then. I'm afraid not. Because there are movies about that, right? Absolutely. Oh, my goodness. Well, what do you hope?

17:13You know, what do you hope that people will take away from reading your book? Besides that being it's very educational and it's inspiring and it's it's it's eye-opening. I think what they will take away from that book is that all the things that we have been told I since six since the time of 65, 1965 when 1980, not 65, 1980, when the when the discovery of the chicks loop impact supposedly happened. If you know what that is, it's the imp, imp-chiant crater that hit ears about 60 at the time of the dinosaurs and believed to be 65 million, 65 million years ago, but it actually was not that fact. How am I going to tell you this easier? What I studied for the

18:20years and many years before before I went to work in India and made the discoveries in India, I had worked for many years on Mexican in order to find out just what happened to this giant meteorite impact and I found discovered a lot of things that were not true that that I of that story. That story I even today is absolutely wrong because the giant meteorite did hit earth but it was not 65 million years ago. It was 200 million years, 200,000 years earlier. Okay. And that discovery we had made in three different localities and those localities are well known. Nobody wants to believe that it couldn't have been the impact that the Alvarez's story. And when I say

19:27Alvarez, this was a son and father team, the father being the Louis Alvarez and more than a vice-winner. So basically this is the biggest story there on that part that actually will come out finally because it's been suppressed, it's been denied and the data we have so much of is finally coming out. That's fascinating. That's very, very interesting. Do you have, I know we're almost at a time. Do you have a next book that you're working on about your work and discoveries? Yes, I do. Can you talk to us? Can you tell us for a second about that? I can tell you that it is a completely different story. It is the story of wartime and it's a story of wartime that I researched in a way when it came to the time when I didn't know what to

20:35do with science because I didn't have any science. I traveled through the world to discover what, why people are killing each other, like in Vietnam or Asia, absolutely everywhere. And I wanted to know, you know, when you grow up in Switzerland, you don't find that sort of thing. Right. And you don't usually get killed there. But I had a few of those episodes and that would be my next book. That's going to be an interesting one. I look forward to talking to you and having you on to talk about it when you're done with that. Yes, the only thing I want to say is the book that has come out is available on and by own published publisher, which is

21:38television press or on Amazon or just about anywhere you can find it. Yeah, and it's called Last Extinction. Extinction, the real science behind the death of the dinosaur. So we're, you know, let everybody know where they can find you if they want to connect with you, learn more about you, see your, you know, just kind of keep track of what's going on with you. I think you can do that on my own email and I already hear a lot and get a lot of emails from from that. Okay, what's your email? Decaler at Princeton.edu. Okay, and I'll put that in the information about the show. And, you know, we want you to support the book. If you have a fascination and love of paleontology and, you know, dinosaurs and all those things that are just so interesting and a microfossil that nobody's known about till now, right? So we want to learn more about that

22:43little guy who's going to be around. He's like the cockroach. He'll be there when everything else is gone, right? Absolutely. Absolutely. Between those and the cockroaches. We will do very well. That's amazing. Well, thank you so much for your time today and for sharing all this amazing information with us. I know I'm very fascinated and I look forward to your next book and having you back on. Thank you. All right. Thank you, Gerna Keller. I will be back to you to thank you around the globe wherever you are. Thank you for being a part of our audience today. Please share the show with your friends and tune in for the next episode of Cover to Cover for all things in the author world. As a mom, I want my kids' lives to be filled with joy and possibility and I love that for every kid. That's why I support No Kid Hungry. They work in schools

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