Boer Deng, Washington

A fossil of a fish said to date from the day an asteroid struckROBERT DEPALMA/AFP/GETTY IMAGES

Scientists have discovered a treasure trove of fossils that appear to record the moment a huge asteroid struck the Earth 66 million years ago, wiping out the dinosaurs and paving the way for the age of mammals.

The find at an archaeological site near Bowman in North Dakota is akin to coming upon “the geological equivalent of high-speed film of the very first moments after the impact”, according to Robert DePalma, the archaeologist who led the dig.

Although the asteroid had slammed into the Earth thousands of miles away in what is today the Yucatan peninsula in Mexico, the forces that it generated affected life across the planet almost instantaneously.

Fires scorched entire landscapes, giant waves were thrown across oceans and earthquakes tore through the…