Oklahoma's prehistoric mammoths faced nefarious diamonds

Mammoths and other critters making a land run in prehistoric Oklahoma got quite the surprise, according to a recent story in USA Today. A report from the journal Science stated that soil samples taken from Oklahoma and other states found concentrations of "nanodiamonds" " kind of like the speck in the ring Bucky bought his sweetheart, but more deadly.

Nanodiamonds, according to the story, are tied to comets impacting the planet and a big ol' layer of them were found in soil dated to about 12,900 years ago. That super fun year saw dozens of North American "megafauna" wiped out and the ushering in of a 1,300-year-long ice age.

Perhaps God, upset folks weren't adhering to his "New Earther" ideals, hit the "smite" button? We always suspected those mammoths were heathens.

The comet catastrophe also has helped explain the sudden disappearance of the "Clovis" people, an early Native American group whose fossil record abruptly halts right around the same time as the mammoths', according to the story.

Study leader Douglas Kennett said future studies will attempt to expand the nanodiamond findings to Europe and other locales, pointing out other species that had it coming (we're looking at you, Neanderthals).

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