Abstract
At the end of the Pleistocene, many large mammals became extinct in North America1. The three most common theories for this phenomenon include climate change, overkill, or disease. Recently, researchers suggested that an extraterrestrial (ET) event may have caused sudden climate change that devastated these large mammals and had profound effects on the Clovis culture2,3. Critics of the ET event or impact theory note the lack of evidence such as an impact crater, impact material, shocked quartz, or tektites4. Here we present for the first time chemical and textural evidence of impact material from the Clovis-age, Murray Springs �black mat� layer, Arizona, USA. The impact material contains iron oxide spherules (framboids) in a glassy iron-silica matrix, which is one indicator of a possible meteorite impact. The spherules also contain elevated concentrations of vanadium and little titanium. The chemistry of both the spherules and matrix is consistent with the chemistry of impact material associated with other meteorite impact sites and meteorite showers.
