Re: New extinction theory

[Dora Smith <villandra@austin.rr.com>]

Offhand, from what was attached here, it looks like he's saying dinosaurs
possibly went extinct because they were molecularly different from other
reptiles.   Like, they had different molecules?   No elaboration given.   In
the abstract, anyway.   But it sounds as if this is the logic!

Maybe they were a silicon based life form?   (Couldn't resist.)

Yours,
Dora Smith
Austin, Texas
villandra@austin.rr.com
----- Original Message -----
From: "Phil Bigelow" <bigelowp@juno.com>
To: <dinosaur@usc.edu>
Sent: Sunday, June 05, 2005 8:33 AM
Subject: Re: New extinction theory


> Is it just me, or was anyone else confused after reading the 2nd half of
> their abstract?
>
> >pb>
> --
>
> On Sun, 05 Jun 2005 11:32:23 -0400 "Andrew A. Farke"
> > Wang, G.-Z., B.-G. Ma, Y. Yang, and H.-Y. Zhang. Unexpected amino
> > acid
> > composition of modern Reptilia and its implications in molecular
> > mechanisms
> > of dinosaur extinction. Biochemical and Biophysical Research
> > Communications
> > In Press, Corrected Proof.
> >
> > Dinosaur extinction is a great challenge to evolutionary biology.
> > Although
> > accumulating evidence suggests that an abrupt change of environment,
> > such as
> > a long period of low temperature induced by asteroid hit or other
> > disasters,
> > may be responsible for dinosaur extinction, little is known about
> > the
> > underlying molecular mechanisms. By analyzing the amino acid
> > compositions of
> > 13 biological classes, we found that the charged amino acid content
> > of
> > modern Reptilia, the sibling of dinosaur, is strikingly different
> > from those
> > of other classes, which inspires us to propose a possible molecular
> > mechanism for dinosaur extinction.
> >
> > ________________________________