RE: K-T extiction (fwd)

["david neves" <grub@MAIL.UTEXAS.EDU>]

  Actually, I'm not a gradualist as such.  From my limited reading of
material ON BOTH SIDES of the question, it seems unreasonable that a single
impact, and subsequent global disturbance, could be solely responsible for
the "mass extinction."
  However, I would concede that an impact could act as a coup de gras for a
biosphere in decline.  (that last phrase is used loosely)
  Finally, birds are anything but irrelevant to the question.  If only low
metabolism, detritus-eating organisms were the primary survivors, then how
did birds last through the K/T transition.  They have a fairly extensive
fossil collection that demonstrates that they had evovled into high
metabolism, omnivorous creatures.

grub
grub@cc.utexas.edu