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Re: Iridium near fossils?



Jeff Grossman wrote:
> 
> Dinos must have been dying and falling into swamps and rivers right up to the
> time of the terminal Cretaceous impact, so there ARE probably a "normal"
> number of fossils from this time in sedimentary rocks somewhere.  The problem
> is that large vertebrate fossils are very rare, and the bone-beds needed
> to ensure a good date are even rarer. 
> 
> The bottom line here is that we are limited by very poor statistics.  If
> bone-beds of dino fossils DO exist right at the boundary, there are
> good reasons why we have not found them.
> 
> jeff
> 
> p.s.  This whole discussion reminds me of questions people asked in 1980,
> after the initial discovery: why don't you find dino fossils sheared off at the
> knees by the initial shock waves?
> 
> Dr. Jeffrey N. Grossman       phone: (703) 648-6184
> US Geological Survey          fax:   (703) 648-6383
> 954 National Center
> Reston, VA 20192, USA

Thanks, I suspected that this would be the answer for the very reasons you gave.  I
was just wondering if anyone had been lucky enough to find the layer/fossil association
yet.  I'm not in any way saying that the fact that they apparently haven't casts doubt 
on the validity of the impact theory of extinction.

Bill Blair

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