From: Marilyn Wegweiser <mdwegweiser@bsuvc.bsu.edu>
Reply-To: mdwegweiser@bsuvc.bsu.edu
To: emmar@ldeo.columbia.edu, dinosaur@usc.edu
Subject: Re: Volcanoes (comments on pterosaur extinction)
Date: Thu, 08 Feb 2001 13:37:51 -0500
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.
--
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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
Muncie, Indiana FAX: 765-285-8265