K/T boundary

["Mike Styzen Shelf Expl, 588-4308" <mstyzen@shell.com>]

Hi, 
I'm a calcareous nannofossil paleontologist so I spend lots of time
thinking about those little rascals.  For those of you who are
unfamiliar with nannos, let me tell you some background. Calcareous
nannoplankton is tiny (usually just a few microns) algae that floats
around in clouds of untold billions in the oceans.  The tiny skelital
remains of these organisms is the major constituent of chalk.  The
Cretaceous is the age of the nannofossil;  chalk everywhere.  Right up
to the end of the Cretaceous nannos were cranking along making many
tons of carbon dioxide into calcium carbonate (which sinks effectivly
removing it from the system) every day.  It is pretty well established
that at the end of the Cretaceous just about all the calcareous
nannoplankton crashed at once.  I've seen very little in print about
the effect of suddenly turning off this giant CO2 removal machine on
the rest of the environment.  But it seems to me that this alone could
set off an ecological shockwave that would greatly contribute to the
demise of lots of other creatures both marine and terrestrial.    

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      Michael J. Styzen                   Phone:  (504) 588-4308
      Shell Offshore Inc.                 Room:   OSS-2920             
      P.O. Box 61933                      E-mail: mstyzen@shell.com
                       
      New Orleans LA  70161                
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