Re: A long post about DUMB METATHERIANS vs EVIL, SMART PLACENTALS

[Dinogeorge@aol.com]

In a message dated 5/21/01 5:49:46 AM EST, jbois@umd5.umd.edu writes:

<< No, just that the pattern of survival is unexplained.  And I'm really just
 goading for a definition.  Things that can't be defined may not exist. >>

The pattern of animal survival is essentially this: above a certain size, all 
land and sea animals were wiped out. Below this size, the extinction was more 
random; some taxa survived, others did not. I seriously doubt whether the 
fossil record will ever tell any more than that. You are, of course, free to 
speculate endlessly about why one or another animal survived/did not survive, 
but I don't think this will go anywhere, since there is no way to go back in 
time to test a hypothesis against what actually happened. A species may have 
survived, for example, simply because it had a population that happened to 
live in a valley where it was shielded from the heat of the impact, a valley 
now filled up beyond recognition.