Re: My comments on pterosaur extinction

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Wed, 7 Feb 2001, David Marjanovic wrote:

> Competition between Maastrichtian pterosaurs and birds is very hard to
> imagine.

Of course.  I believe we were discussing the cause of the replacement of
pterosaurs by birds throughout the late Cretaceous, or whenever.

> Competition as a cause for background extinction may be quite common (I
> rather doubt it, but it has occurred), but IMHO it is totally unsuitable as
> a cause for any mass extinction. 

Pterosaurs appear to be mostly gone before the K/T--so we're are not 
necessarily looking for a mass extinction kind of cause.