Re: Various topics

[Tom Holtz <tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov>]

>1) I know of no other dinosaur paleontologists (or any other paleontologists)
>that take Bob Bakker's idea of disease knocking off the dinos seriously.
>That's out of dozens I've talked with through the years where the subject has
>come up. Knock off a species of a couple very closely-related species maybe,
>but most or all dino taxa worldwide, no. It is up to Bakker to come up with
>a testable mechanism and go through the process of testing it. Otherwise,
>it's just an idea (and we all have skillions of them) that may go over
>well during some of his public talks but will go no further. When he does
>come up with something testable, then I'll really enjoy going over what he
>presents and considering it seriously. Tom, Mike, Ken - anything I've missed
>here? If so, I'll happily say ignore the above.

Nothing to add here - very well said!  Bakker's hypothesis does have one
attraction to it, in that he links extinction on land and extinction in the
seas to the same ultimate cause (draining of the continental sea ways), but
there is no hard evidence for disease-based extinction on land.

>By the way, I made a standing offer to Horner that I'd buy him a beer
>refrigerator (for his Vitamin R) if he'd find me an articulated
>pachycephalosaur that I could describe and that would be deposited in
>a good Museum. I'll do the same for any one else.

I'll have to go looking!!

                                
Thomas R. Holtz, Jr.                                   
tholtz@geochange.er.usgs.gov
Vertebrate Paleontologist in Exile                  Phone:      703-648-5280
U.S. Geological Survey                                FAX:      703-648-5420
Branch of Paleontology & Stratigraphy
MS 970 National Center
Reston, VA  22092
U.S.A.