Re: mammal mystery

[Larry <dunn1@idt.net>]

Sam Girouard wrote:

> I think a few of us are forgeting that in the Hell Creek Formation the
> really small mammals actually lost more species than the big dinosaurs 

I think this whole "size and the philosophy of survival" issue is a bit 
out of control, because its not really responding to the simple question 
of why large/why small.  Although I vowed after my dino hiney post not 
to engage in it any further, I must note that this post is a bit 
misleading.  Bare numbers mean nothing.  What percentage of dinosaurs 
survived?  What percentage of mammals?  THAT'S the key question.  I don't 
disagree that the adaptable little mammals got through it better, but my 
argument is that you can't define the success or failure of a life-form 
by it's resilience to once-in-a-hundred-million-years catastrophes.