Were the dinosaurs done in by fungus?

Boston Globe ^ | February 22, 2005 | Carolyn Y. Johnson

[SunkenCiv]

"The forests went out. The fungi proliferated, and the Earth became a giant compost pile. An enormous number of spores were released," said Dr. Arturo Casadevall, an infectious disease researcher who proposed last month that air thick with fungal spores after the meteor hit could have overwhelmed animals' immune systems, causing sickness and death... "It's just a beautifully creative suggestion," said Nicholas Money, a mycologist, or mold expert, from Miami University of Ohio and author of "Carpet Monsters and Killer Spores: A Natural History of Toxic Mold." ...Casadevall, of Albert Einstein College of New York... has long been troubled by the lives of warm-blooded animals, who must live a virtual food-finding mission because they burn so many calories each day just heating their bodies. Cold-blooded animals, on the other hand, need only eat once every few days... Fungal infections rarely give mammals more than a mildly irritating case of athlete's foot or a yeast infection but are often deadly to plants, fish, and insects... Researchers last year discovered fossil evidence of a post-collision "fungal spike," and in a world dense with potentially pathogenic fungi, warm-blooded animals might have had a unique advantage.

[SunkenCiv]

...Casadevall, of Albert Einstein College of New York... has long been troubled by the lives of warm-blooded animals, who must live a virtual food-finding mission because they burn so many calories each day just heating their bodies. Cold-blooded animals, on the other hand, need only eat once every few days... Fungal infections rarely give mammals more than a mildly irritating case of athlete's foot or a yeast infection but are often deadly to plants, fish, and insects... Researchers last year discovered fossil evidence of a post-collision "fungal spike," and in a world dense with potentially pathogenic fungi, warm-blooded animals might have had a unique advantage.

I'd forgotten about this, rediscovered it tonight, pretty interesting. :')