Melosh was originally concerned that the survival of some lineages, like birds, falsified the theory. Modern birds spend their time out in the open, where they would have been incinerated, unlike the surviving mammals that could have burrowed to avoid the inferno.

“But it turns out, all modern birds are descended from an order of water birds, whose modern relatives nest in holes in the bank,” he said. “So they were probably able to survive that way. They had burrows that they could hide in. The impact happened in June to July, so they were probably nesting at the time.”

— Ends of the World by Peter Brannen (48%)