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'Trickle of food' helped deep sea creatures survive asteroid strike that wiped out the dinosaurs
EurekAlert! ^ | Thursday, April 14, 2016 | Cardiff University

Posted on 04/25/2016 9:28:28 PM PDT by SunkenCiv

Study of fossil shells solves unanswered question of how deep sea creatures survived asteroid strike during immense upheaval of the world's oceans...

Like the dinosaurs themselves, giant marine reptiles, invertebrates and microscopic organisms became extinct after the catastrophic asteroid impact in an immense upheaval of the world's oceans, yet deep sea creatures managed to survive.

This has puzzled researchers as it is widely believed that the asteroid impact cut off the food supply in the oceans by destroying free-floating algae and bacteria.

However, in a study published in the April issue of the journal Geology, a team led by researchers from Cardiff University's School of Earth and Ocean Sciences provides strong evidence suggesting that some forms of algae and bacteria were actually living in the aftermath of the asteroid disaster, and that they acted as a constant, sinking, slow trickle of food for creatures living near the seafloor.

The team were able to draw these conclusions by analysing new data from the chemical composition of the fossilised shells of sea surface and seafloor organisms from that period, taken from drilling cores from the ocean floor in the South Atlantic...

Scientists also claim that the impact of the asteroid would have filled the Earth's atmosphere with sulphur trioxide, subsequently creating a gas cloud that would have caused a mass amount of sulphuric acid rain to fall in just a few days, making the surface of the ocean too acidic for upper ocean creatures to live.

(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...


TOPICS: Astronomy; Science
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; chicxulub; cretaceous; dinosaurs; godsgravesglyphs; ktboundary; massextinction; paleogene; paleontology; piltdownman; storkzilla; tertiary
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To: Sawdring

“”Another example of a finding that even if true, has no practical value other than satisfying someone’s idle curiosity.””

“Yeah, why would one want to know his own origin?”

Did you read the article? It provides evidence that not all plankton, algae and bacteria were killed by the asteroid impact. First off it has never been proposed that they were all killed. Such an assertion would be preposterous since these organisms are extremely hardy, numerous and widely distributed. If the impact was powerful enough to kill all of them all animals and other aquatic life would have also been killed. So the paper is attacking a straw man argument. Second, what practical information does this work provide? How can it be used? Why spend money on this? What are the benefits other than to satisfy someones curiosity?


21 posted on 04/26/2016 12:44:09 PM PDT by Brooklyn Attitude (It's the apocalypse, lets have some fun!)
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To: SunkenCiv

I’m a little confused. They talk as though the deep ocean was the only place anything survived, then they say only 45 percent of species went extinct.


22 posted on 04/26/2016 12:53:09 PM PDT by dsc (Any attempt to move a government to the left is a crime against humanity.)
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To: bert

If it is truly new data based upon new technology and real developments great. And if they are really analyzing it with a clear and unbiased mind that is great.

My point is that many scientists want to prove their personal theory and try to make as much money as possible and they bend or mislead the truth. And yes some scientists even falsify their data in order to ptove their theoy and are unwilling to let anybody else look at the data because it wil be “misinterpreted”. Shocking.


23 posted on 04/26/2016 5:46:09 PM PDT by seawolf101 (This)
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