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Selective Extinction
An old and often asked question about the final dinosaur extinction is why
certain animals went and others didn't. I read somewhere recently about an
impact theory wherein a wave of hot gasses swept across the land destroying
most everything in its path. I wonder if there could be anything in the
idea that creatures who lay low to the ground (crocodiles, lizards,
turtles, snakes, frogs, small mammals, many insects etc) would have been
spared in such a scenario (even some birds and flyers high up in the air
might have been missed by the main devastation). But bigger animals that
stood with higher profiles made better targets and were simply mowed down.
This is obviously not the whole picture but it does seem that the animals
who survived were closer to the ground that those who did not.