Steady decline in mean annual air temperatures in the first 30 k.y. after the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary

The Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) boundary marks one of the five major mass extinctions of the Phanerozoic. The ways in which the climate system responded to a bolide impact and extensive volcanism at this time over different time scales are highly debated. We used the distribution of branched tetraether lipids (brGDGT) from fossil peats at two sites in Sas-katchewan, Canada (paleolatitude-55 degrees N), to generate a high-resolution (millennial) record of mean annual air temperature (MAAT) spanning the last -4 k.y. of the Cretaceous and the first -30 k.y. of the Paleogene. Our study shows that MAATs ranged from 16 to 29 degrees C, with the highest value in the first millennia of the Paleogene. The earliest Paleogene aver-aged -25 degrees C-maintaining or enhancing warmth from the latest Cretaceous-followed by general cooling to -20 degrees C over the following -30 k.y. No abrupt postboundary cooling (e.g., an "impact winter") or abrupt warming is evident in our data, implying that if such phenom-ena occurred, their duration was relatively short-lived (i.e., sub-millennial-scale). Further, no long-term impact-or volcanism-driven warming is evident. The range of temperature change observed is considerably greater than that derived from marine proxy records over the same time interval. Our findings therefore more properly place bounds on the magnitude and duration of temperature change on land during this critical interval-the main setting for the demise of nonavian dinosaurs and the rise of mammals.