Sixty-six million years ago a 10-kilometer-wide space rock fell out of the sky over what is now the Yucatán Peninsula in the Gulf of Mexico. When it hit Earth, it blew a Maryland-sized hole in the crust, igniting global firestorms and killing off some 75 percent of species. For the dinosaurs it drove to extinction, the event was effectively the end of the world. But from the ashes survivors arose—our mammalian ancestors—beginning a vibrant new era in Earth’s history. Today this catastrophic impact is considered a cosmic act of creative…
