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Re: Gene: Meteor May Not Have Destroyed Dinosaurs Afterall?

Hello Gene - 

    The exact same thing bothered me a while back.  
Turn the problem on its head:  Use the data on
surviving species to try to determine the effects of
the K/T impact.
    What survives?  Burrowing animals. (and birds)
    The lung rupture and heat/fire kills all large
animals with some exceptions.
    What happened to the small burrowing dinosaurs and
lizards? Small burrowing lizards and dinosaurs could
have survived the initial blast, but they would have
been dependent on sunlight for metabolic regulation.
Crocodiles, alligators, turtles, and snakes all use
aquatic environments, which must have allowed them in
some way to survive. 
    The marine environment was pretty well trashed,
most think through acid rain, but whether it still
provided food for these survivors is open. Some
turtles are vegetarian, but snakes, alligators and
crocodiles are carnivours.  Why this acid rain did not
take out the alligators, crocodiles, turtles, and
snakes is open.
    The metabolism of small burrowing mammals is not
dependent on sunlight, and they feed on vegetation.
Living underground, they were safe from the acid rain.
    With no competitors, an extremely fast rate of
reproduction, then assuming identical genetic mutation
rates among species, they fill all the niches as the
niches become re-established.
    Survival of insects should throw further light on
the scale of the K-T impact.  The over pressures
should have ruptured their bodies, and the acid rain
should reaked further havoc.  Some insect species were
undoubtedly dependent upon sunlight for metabolism,
navigation, and locating nourishment.
 
EP



--- Gene Marlin <rmarlin@network-one.com> wrote:
> I'm getting further from the main idea of this
> thread, but something bothers
> me about the events around the K/T mass extinction.
> 
> Birds survived to become one of the most successful
> creatures on the planet.
> Lizards survived but took a back seat. Small mammals
> lived and later became
> bigger mammals that gathered meteorites.
> 
> But of the dinosaurs, no trace remains. However, the
> smaller dinosaur
> species on the order of chicken size, would have had
> a nearly equal
> opportunity of survival, but the planet is
> completely purged of them as
> well. In fact, they would have had large numbers of
> carcasses to feed off
> while the planet went dark.  Why did the terror
> birds next inflict fear into
> the hearts of mammals instead of a dinosaur
> resurrection occuring from
> surviving small species? What is the great
> fundamental difference between
> the birds and dinosaurs that must have allowed one
> to survive after the
> other was dispatched?
> 
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