Re: extinction

[Sherry Michael <st90snk7@dunx1.ocs.drexel.edu>]

> In background, it has long been known that dinosaur bone
> drops out about 3 meters below the K-T boundary in the
> Lance/Hell Creek formations.
 
> You seem to be unaware of the Deccan Trap volcanism which spanned
> the boundary.   This would have many of the same effects as an
> impact, but spread out over a longer period.

Deccan trap volcanism? Flood basalt volcanism? I must have missed this
one...will someone please enlighten the geology impared...
 
> Combine this with the cooling climate, the lowering shelf seas
> (for marine organisms), and as a final blow, the Chicxulub impact,
> and you get a fairly good multi-causal model for the extinction.
> 

Chicxulub "impact?" I hear of late new theories saying it may be
volcanic, due to the layers of melted materials under the impact site are
not deep enough for a meteor that size.

Something that always bothers me about the meteor theory:

1) as Bakker points out, what about animals like frogs that are very
dependent on conditions such as temperature and acid rain storms? Why did
they make it?

2) Just because a meteor fell someplace does not make a direct cause-effect
relationship. Maybe it was just a fluke one fell when the dinosaurs were
dying out. I don't want to see some hole and say, "look this is the one
that did it!" I want someone to show me proof a meteor killed off dinosaurs. 
This is like the police finding a gun and saying it was a murder weapon
without knowing the wounds of the dead first.

3) Are we running around looking for easy-answer craters instead of looking
for why the dinosaurs died out?? Are we looking to back up a theory (very
human thing to do) or looking for the truth? Not to say these things are
mutually exclusive, but you get the gist.

Just my $.02..I know my arguments may be weak...it's midterms here :)

-Sherry