Re: K-T crocodylians

[chris brochu <christopher-brochu@uiowa.edu>]

>  I personally can't imagine how they could get through
>unscathed.


I see two problems with this statement:

1.  It presupposes that there really was an enormous catastrophe at the end
of the Cretaceous.  It's not my crocodylocentric view coloring my
perspective here - remember, I've worked on dinosaurs too.

2.  There really, honestly, truly are no data to indicate anything other
than normal background extinction rates within crocodyliforms, and none at
all within crown-group Crocodylia.  The only lineage I see biting it within
the Maastricthtian (not necessarily at its end) is "Goniopholididae"
(probably not monophyletic and hence not natural), and it's not a
crocodylian assemblage.  There simply is nothing to suggest any kind of
elevated extinction rates within the group.  Whether you, or anyone else,
cannot imagine such a scenario is at variance with what we actually see.



chris

------------------------
Christopher A. Brochu
Assistant Professor
Department of Geoscience
University of Iowa
Iowa City, IA 52242

christopher-brochu@uiowa.edu
319-353-1808 phone
319-335-1821 fax