Extinction

[tlcomp@iu.net (Timothy C. Loss)]

>Date: Tue, 25 Apr 1995 20:12:29 -0400
>Errors-To: rowe@lepomis.psych.upenn.edu
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>From: geocard@PrimeNet.Com (George Cardamenis)
>To: Multiple recipients of list <dinosaur@lepomis.psych.upenn.edu>
>Subject: Extinction
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rowe@lepomis.psych.upenn.edu
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>Hello:
>
..  If the dinosaurs were killed off by
>the impact theory, how could such animals like frogs and turtles survive a
>big change in temperature?  I would apprectiate any information on the
>subject.  Thank you.
>
>
>Hello everyone,
I've also been lurking awhile.  This post inspired an idea to answer this 
question which I haven't seen mentioned here yet.  Sadly, it would be 
difficult to determine this from the fossil record.  Many species of living 
animals hibernate seasonally (including some species of mammals and 
amphibians), or go into a kind of suspended animation, slowing metabolic 
rate down drastically to survive at night when they're not feeding.  
Hummingbirds do this and probably other birds as well.  It would seem 
plausible that if a major impact caused a 'nuclear winter'-type  effect, 
then those animals who were tricked into thinking it was night or winter, 
and went to sleep, survived.  We don't know very much about the specific 
triggers that cause animals to go into hibernation now, so this will 
probably remain just conjecture.  What think all?    Marty Loss