Re: K/T Boundary?

[Troy Stoneking <tstone@olivet.edu>]

K stands for Cretaceous, now I know that Cretaceos doesn't start with a 
K, but there is a good reason.  In the geologic time scale there are two 
geologic periods which start with a c, they are the Cambrian and the 
Cretaceous.  When geologists are writing, they prefer to use 
abbreviations, as opposed to typing "Cretaceous/Tertiary Boudary" dozens 
of times.  So, in order to facilitae less typing time geologic periods 
are often shortened to a one letter symbol.  Also, because of the fact 
that C is already taken to stand for Cambrian (the earlier period) K was 
chosen to abbreviate Cretaceous.  Hope this helps.   (BTW the T does 
stand for Tertiary).

********************************************************************************
     Troy Stoneking
     Director, Strickler Planetarium
     Olivet Nazarene University                 "The person who says it can't
     Kankakee, IL 60901                          be done should never interrupt
     Phone: (815) 939-5267                       the person doing it"
     Fax:   (815) 939-5071                                            Unknown
     E-Mail: tstone@olivet.edu
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On Wed, 16 Nov 1994, Snake wrote:

> Forwarded message:
> > 
> > but, i remember hearing the statistic that ~75% of species became extinct
> > at the K/T boundary.  how can you say that this did not affect most food
> > webs?  or do i have the numbers wrong?
> > bonn
> 
> I know this is a really fundamental question, but remember, I'm new
> to paleontology: What do the "K" and "T" stand for? Every book I
> have uses the phrase "K/T boundary" merrily, but none of them 
> define it. I hhave inferred that it occurred at the end of the
> Cretaceous, and in that context, "T" could be "Tertiary", but
> what is "K"? "Mesozoic" doesn't start with "K", nor does 
> "Cretaceous"... If someone could define that for me, I'd really
> appreciate it; it's been driving me nuts.
> Thanks.
> Sean
> > 
> 
> 
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