How nearby stellar explosions could have killed off large animals

Given such a smoking gun, Melott turned to a question scientists have pondered since at least the 1950s: How might these supernovas affect Earth and its life? In the new paper, he describes how a supernova would produce a shower of subatomic particles called muons that could damage DNA, leading to widespread mutations in organisms, and even the extinction of species. Even if muon showers and iron-60 from dying stars cannot be directly linked to extinctions, their presence demonstrates a profound truth: Earth, and everything on it, is a part of the universe, not apart from it.

Source: www.quantamagazine.org