Re: New extinction theory

[Tim Donovan <uwrk2@yahoo.com>]

Could this be a rehash of Zhao's theory that the
dinosaurs were poisoned, based on high concentrations
of trace elements in pathological dinosaur eggshell
from the Pingling formation? Maybe they think the
dinosaurs were more susceptible to poisoning, or
infertility resulting from it?

--- "Andrew A. Farke" <afarke@ic.sunysb.edu> wrote:

> I haven't had a chance to read through this yet (or
> will I in the near
> future), but figured it might be of interest to some
> on the list.
> 
> 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.
> 
> ________________________________
> Andrew A. Farke, Graduate Student
> Department of Anatomical Sciences
> Stony Brook University
> T8 040 Health Sciences Center
> Stony Brook, NY  11794-8081
>  
> Phone: 631-444-7364
> Email: afarke@ic.sunysb.edu
> 
> 
> 



                
__________________________________ 
Discover Yahoo! 
Have fun online with music videos, cool games, IM and more. Check it out! 
http://discover.yahoo.com/online.html