Re: Various topics

["Bonnie Blackwell, x 3332" <bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu>]

While I do not really believe bakker's hypthothis to be the sole cause,
i must challenge tom holtz about his comment about hard evidence.
i must ask him what hard evidence we could really expect to find.
many diseases leave little pathology on the hard skeleton.  usually,
only prolonged diseases (those that match the bone replacement cycle 
in length, like arthritis, syphilis, osteoporosis, etc.) or diseases that
produce breaks (most virus and bacteria don't cause animals to go out
and break any one bone (if any) consistently).  given that what kind of
hard evidence could we expect?  parasites are notorious poor at getting
into the fossil record (worse by far than vertebrates).  

Tom your ball....
b

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Bonnie Blackwell,                               bonn@qcvaxa.acc.qc.edu
Dept of Geology,                                (718) 997-3332
Queens College, City University of New York,    fax:  997-3349
Flushing, NY 11367-1597