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

Hello Phil - 

     I seem to remember a post last year about the
composition of the K-T impactor, but don't remember
the nickle content.
     In any case, if the cause of death had of been
nickle poisoning then none of the burrowing animals or
birds would have survived.  It's like considering acid
rain, and the collapse of phtosynthesis due to dust: 
the animals were already dead, and nearly all of the
plants had already been burned to ash.

EP



--- Phil Bagnall <phil@ticetboo.demon.co.uk> wrote:
> >    The metabolism of small burrowing mammals is
> not
> >dependent on sunlight, and they feed on vegetation.
> 
> 
> I think one of the problems with the K-T and other
> mass extinction events is
> that everyone knows the basic scenario but the
> devil, as they say, is in the
> detail.
> 
> For example, there is a good chance that a lot of
> creatures that survived
> the initial blast and impact winter would have died
> from nickel poisoning.
> Nickel is highly toxic and can readily be absorbed
> from the soil by plants,
> thus entering the food web. It is only when you
> start looking at the details
> do you begin to realise that the "Great Dying" was
> far more complex that is
> often portrayed in popular science magazines and
> programmes.
> 
> Phil Bagnall
> www.ticetboo.demon.co.uk
> 
> 
> 
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=====

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