[meteorite-list] Did Meteorite Strike Kill Dinos? No, Say Geologists

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:23:45 2004
Message-ID: <200303052011.MAA01343_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://in.news.yahoo.com/030305/139/21shy.html

Did meteorite strike kill dinos? No, say geologists
ANI (Australia)
March 5, 2003

Sydney: Contrary to popular belief that a meteorite strike led to the
extinction of dinosaurs, geologists from an Australian university
say the creatures were killed by geological upheaval.

According to Gordon Lister and Ivo Vos of Monash University's School
of Geosciences, the sudden disappearance of the dinosaurs 65
million years ago is the best known mass extinction.

"Throughout Earth's history, there have been great mass extinctions
where most living things are destroyed. We don't know much
about them except they were abrupt," Professor Lister was quoted as
saying by The Age.

Most scientists believe that the dinosaurs were wiped out by the
impact of a 12-kilometre meteorite that caused the
180-kilometre-wide Chicxulub crater on the Yucatan Peninsula in
Mexico. The impact would have dramatically altered Earth's climate.

Prof Lister said that while there probably was such an impact, it
did not kill off the dinosaurs.

"You have to ask yourself whether this event was as big as you
thought it was. You had an impact, but did it cause as much impact
as people like to imagine?" he added.

And given that geological upheaval had caused most other mass
extinctions, it was likely it had led to the destruction of the
dinosaurs also.

As Prof Lister puts in, "The meteorite strike would have been just
the coup de grace. You really start to wonder if we're making a
special case (for the dinosaurs).
Received on Wed 05 Mar 2003 03:11:59 PM PST