Re: Jurassic intelligence (time-scale for evolution of alien

[Derek Tearne <derek@iconz.co.nz>]

> 
>   Unfortunately we are createing specie extintion at a rate that may 
> exceed any previously known. Just so it's clear that it's just not modern 
> man, look at the extintions in Hawaii and New Zealand when stone age man 
> arrived. 

While I take your point about extinctions I would have to say that 
calling the Polynesians 'stone age' is ignoring both their cultural
sophistication, navigational prowess and technological achievements.  
After all, a culture which could colonise the entire pacific *and get 
back home* aren't really that 'primitive' are they?.

> Both areas were so low 'competitive' that many bird specie had 
> lost flight, I think the figure I have heard for flightless bird 
> extinsion in Hawaii alone was 20.

If I remember rightly (and I can check and repost) 70% of all the 
species which have become extinct in the USA have been from the 
Hawaiian islands.

---
Derek Tearne.             --                       derek@iconz.co.nz   
Some of the more environmentally aware dinosaurs were worried about the         
consequences of an accident with the new Iridium enriched fusion reactor.       
"If it goes off only the cockroaches and mammals will survive..." they said.