About 66 million years ago, at the boundary between the Cretaceous and Tertiary periods, one of five great mass extinctions in Earth’s history took place. In addition to the dinosaurs, pterosaurs, ammonites and many other organisms became extinct. It is debated whether the impact of an asteroid on the Yucatan Peninsula in Mexico or extreme volcanic eruptions in India were the cause.
The special exhibition of the Bavarian State Office for the Environment (LfU) is dedicated to this topic. In addition to fossils from the Bavarian and Austrian Alps, two drill cores with the boundary layer, which is only a few millimeters thick, are also on display. These exhibits, shown for the first time ever at the Munich Show, come from the only known occurrence of the boundary layer in Germany, in a remote trench in the Latten Mountains in southeastern Bavaria.
In order to shed light on what happened 66 million years ago, the LfU has examined the rock strata. The scientific findings are presented in an entertaining way. And the result? Let yourself be surprised!