Re: Selective Extinction

[Bettyc <Bettyc@flyinggoat.com>]

Peter Von Sholly wrote:
> 
> 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.

birds, of course, survived, whereas pterasauroids did not so if you can
perhaps explain why?
Wehn Mt. St. Helens went off, birds that flew away survived, but still
had to deal with the ash that covered everything afterwards to search
for food and water.
-- 
           Betty Cunningham  
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