Re: Volcanoes (comments on pterosaur extinction)

[Marilyn Wegweiser <mdwegweiser@bsuvc.bsu.edu>]

At 12:48 PM -0500 2/8/01, Emma C. Rainforth wrote:
> > At 04:19 PM 08/02/01 +0000, Ken Kinman wrote:
> > > In any case one would
> > > hardly expect herbivorous dinosaurs to inhabit freshly erupted lava fields
> > > until a reasoable vegetation cover had evolved, again a matter of centuries,
> > > even in a tropical climate.
>
> Ronald I. Orenstein replied:
>
> > Is this true?  In Hawaii it certainly does not necessarily take 
> > that long for lava flows to re-vegetate.  Under the right 
> > conditions I think it is more likely to be decades than centuries 
> > (you can see this on the rainier parts of the big Island); ferns 
> > can establish themselves fairly quickly.
>
>
> not necessarily that long. Ferns are opportunists and will quickly 
> establish themselves in disturned environments (e.g. the fern-spore 
> spike at both the KTB and TJB: immediately after the extinction, 
> ferns, which had previously been a minor component of floras, 
> dominated to the virtual exclusion of everything else.Mt St Helens 
> is a recent example of *very* rapid estabishment of flora (initially 
> ferns).

Yes. Ferns, are the first to return after a wildfire, as a matter of fact.

--
                        =00=  =00=  =00=  =00=
                        Marilyn D. Wegweiser, Ph.D.
                Adjunct Curator of Vertebrate Paleontology
                     Cincinnati Natural History Museum

Assistant Professor of Geology
Department of Geology                   mdwegweiser@bsu.edu
Ball State University                   Office: 765-285-8268;765-285-8270
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