Algae Survived The Post-Dinosaur-Killing Asteroid Darkness By Eating Other Creatures

One of the most extraordinary things about the impact of an asteroid that hit Earth 66 million years ago is not what died, but what survived. A new study found that one order of marine algae made it through by changing its source of energy, feeding on other life forms instead of harvesting sunlight. In the process, they greatly sped up the recovery of oceanic ecosystems. In the Cretaceous, as today, photosynthetic algae formed the base of the open ocean's food webs. When the asteroid struck, causing the Cretaceous-Paleogene...