On 6 Mar 2003 at 14:02, Michael Canady wrote:
> Maybe it was mc donalds and starbucks that killed off the dinosaurs
>
> -luke
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: Moontanman_at_aol.com
> Sent: Thursday, March 06, 2003 12:03 AM
> To: nanfa_at_aquaria.net
> Subject: Re: NANFA-- Louisiana sinking and other thoughts
>
> In a message dated 3/6/03 12:29:51 AM Eastern Standard Time,
> bongi_at_cox-internet.com writes:
>
> Just to let everyone know out there the astroid theory is obsolete now
> according to my biology profesor at washington state university.
> Fossil evidence shows that the dinosaurs took around a million years
> to die out, not days, or weeks, but lots of time, and why did the
> astroid kill the dinosaurs, but not the early mammals of the time?
>
> Luke, since I am not a paleontologist and therefore am not bound by
> any perticular line of thinking I would like to point out that many
> people have said the impact theory was obsolete only to later come
> back to the impact because nothing else really explains what happened.
> Even the theory that massive volcanic eruptions occurring in Asia were
> the real cause are now highly suspected to have come about or at least
> been made much worse by the impact. I personally thought the
> possibility of such a small impact could cause volcanism on the other
> side of the planet was kinda stretching reality but now they have the
> reasons pinned down pretty good. I think there was the possibility
> that due to various environmental pressures the dinosaurs were having
> problems. But it wasn't the first time they had suffered a decline and
> sprung back. To say that even if the asteroid hadn't hit the earth
> that dinosaurs were already dying off and doomed is simply unknowable.
> Almost unthinkable when you consider the huge variety of animals that
> were dinosaurs. No doubt they would have adapted to the new conditions
> in some way. Maybe most of the really specialized ones would have
> succumbed but dinosaurs were lords of this planet and had ridden out
> many declines and come back more diversified than ever. personally I
> think it was a triple whammy of extreme specialization, asteroid
> impact in one of the worst possible places on the earth and subsequent
> release of titanic volumes of lava around the world that gave them the
> coupe de grace. No one of these would have done the job completely on
> animals that had adapted to every large animal niche on the planet. I
> know I'll catch hell for saying this but many times specialists get
> caught up in one idea so completely they can't see the trees for the
> forest. Like the guy who says that disease wiped out the dinosaurs.
> While I have no doubt disease played a part in such a disturbed
> ecosystem it seems unlikely that disease could have killed off all
> forms of dinosaurs without some other devastating problem helping
> along. I think the dinosaurs were just unlucky enough to have
> specialized in a direction that caused them to be vulnerable to the
> triple whammy that occurred when the asteroid hit the earth. It's a
> lot like the guy who says that T-Rex had to be a scavenger and then
> went to the comparison with hyenas to prove his point that a land
> animals could live as a scavenger. Never realizing that hyenas are no
> more pure scavengers than lions and in some places lions scavenge
> hyena kills more often they kill for themselves. As though a land
> animals could survive just by scavenging. The only animals to day that
> are really scavengers are buzzards and their kind because it takes a
> flier to cover enough ground to find enough dead things to live. I am
> sure T-Rex scavenged just like any other predator will if it gets the
> chance. But to think of such a large animals walking for weeks looking
> for a carcass because he was too weak to kill on his own just doesn't
> hold up. (Actually I kinda the idea that T-Rex may have specialized to
> running other predators off their prey) And then there is the guy who
> say the triceratops only used his horns as a sexual display and not
> for defense. Citing of course deer, moose and elk as models. I guess
> he never had a bull toss him over a fence or saw films of a rhino
> tearing up a land cruiser. If an animal has teeth he will use them to
> kill when he is hungry and something fails to get out of his way in
> time and a moose will make you think twice about the reason he has
> those horns if you get too close much less what a rhino will do. The
> animals that survived the Cretaceous Tertiary boundary were small,
> adapted to marginal habitats, eaters of roots and tubers insectivores
> or able to estivate or eaters of the small mammals. The result was
> small mammals, reptiles, crocodilians and the wild card which was
> birds. If there was a tremendous mass extinction today my money would
> be on the reptiles and rodents or maybe if it was really bad insects
> surviving to repopulate the world. The large mammals would be the
> first to go. Theories should be more inclusive when dealing with
> something like the extinction of dinosaurs especially when you figure
> in that they were not the only creatures that disappeared. Animals
> that need specialized habitats will always be the first to go,
> especially large highly specialized animals. Also many new fossil digs
> have shown that the dinosaurs were at their peak of diversity when
> they left this world except for small size animals which were taken by
> mammals. Just my opinion, I could be wrong ;-)
>
> Moon
> -
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> -------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not
> necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American
> Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the
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Prost,
Martin
Jackson, MS
-- Life's a fish and then you fry. /----------------------------------------------------------------------------- /"Unless stated otherwise, comments made on this list do not necessarily / reflect the beliefs or goals of the North American Native Fishes / Association" / This is the discussion list of the North American Native Fishes Association / nanfa_at_aquaria.net. To subscribe, unsubscribe, or get help, send the word / subscribe, unsubscribe, or help in the body (not subject) of an email to / nanfa-request_at_aquaria.net. For a digest version, send the command to / nanfa-digest-request_at_aquaria.net instead. / For more information about NANFA, visit our web page, http://www.nanfa.org