[meteorite-list] Giant Dinosaurs Arrived With A Bang

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:04:49 2004
Message-ID: <200205162139.OAA02484_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

>
> There are to many holes in the theory. My favorite example, is that the
> creatures that should have been severely affected such as birds, frogs,
> turtles and many forms of microscopic life, in fact survived the
> event.


There seemed to be a preference for the larger animals to go extinct with
these impacts. This is not surprising, as the larger animals tend to be
on the top of the food chain, and more susceptible to large enviromental
changes. The smaller animals had a better chance for survival, which is
shown in the fossil record across the KT boundary. The
birds, frogs and turtles were not doubt severely affected by the impact,
and I'm sure several subspecies went extinct, but there were a few that
managed to survive. And it only take a few survivors to keep the
species going. The animals like frogs and turtles had one extra thing
in their favor - the ability to hibernate. This probably played a key
role in their survival abilities. Bird are very mobile and can
travel long distances to safer ground, so that probably aided in their
survival.

Ron Baalke
Received on Thu 16 May 2002 05:39:22 PM PDT