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Posted on 10/24/2019 2:27:29 PM PDT by Red Badger
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - A revelatory cache of fossils dug up in central Colorado details as never before the rise of mammals from the post-apocalyptic landscape after an asteroid smacked Earth 66 million years ago and annihilated three-quarters of all species including the dinosaurs.
The fossils, described by scientists on Thursday, date from the first million years after the calamity and show that the surviving terrestrial mammalian and plant lineages rebounded with aplomb. Mammals, after 150 million years of subservience, attained dominance. Plant life diversified impressively.
With dinosaurs no longer eating them, mammals made quick evolutionary strides, assuming new forms and lifestyles and taking over ecological niches vacated by extinct competitors. Within 700,000 years of the mass extinction, their body mass had become 100 times bigger than the mammals living immediately after the mass extinction.
“Were it not for the asteroid, humans would never have evolved,” said Ian Miller, curator of paleobotany and director of earth and space sciences at the Denver Museum of Nature & Science. “One message I would like people to take from this is that their earliest ancestors - and by ancestors we’re talking fuzzy little squirrel-like critters - had their origins in the wake of the extinction of the dinosaurs.”
The thousands of well-preserved animal and plant fossils, unearthed just east of Colorado Springs, illuminate a time interval that had been shrouded in mystery.
“Essentially, we were able to tease out details of the emergence of the modern world - the age of mammals - from the ashes of the age of the dinosaurs,” Miller said.
Sixteen mammal species were discovered, with skulls and other bones fossilized after being buried in rivers and floodplains. Until now, only tiny mammal fossil fragments from that time had been discovered.
(Excerpt) Read more at reuters.com ...
And none of that was responsive to what I said, just a bunch of ad-homonym rubbish.
The asteroid did not kill dinosaurs directly. Instead the dust and debris kicked into atmosphere created prolonged blocking out the sun, accompanied by excessive cooling of atmosphere. The cold blooded Dino’s perished but the warm blooded small mammals survived.
Wrong! Science is precise when current data is available.
Here you are talking about hundreds of millions ago, so scientists must try to put 2 and 2 together by extrapolation of old data such as bones of ancient creatures.
That is pretty much what my post said. Since there are no video’s or photographs or written records from millions of years ago, scientists have to play role of Sherlock Holmes and use available clues to reach conclusions.
But when current data is available, science is extremely precise. For example science can measure your exact blood pressure and accurately predict your chances of having kidney failure.
Current data is not enough to reach verifiable scientific results. Data can be doctored and misinterpreted and lost and messed with, and even ‘made up’. Such as the ‘current’ data in ‘global warming science’.
My previous posts mostly related to data that is old and very skimpy and which requires a lot of guesswork, such as when a single tooth 100 million years old takes ‘scientists’ on a path of a lot of guesswork and speculation.
Both of your posts, #13 and #14, were great. Thanks for your knowledgeable posts.
Thanks!
Thanks all.
Mammal told me there'd be days like these.
Post-apocalyptic fossils show rise of mammals after dinosaur demise
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That’s good. Otherwise, that whole extinction event timing thing becomes real problematical for us.
I mean, it would suck to be us if it was now little Johnny veliciraptor playing with his plastic human toys.
That’s what they want you to think............
“then I would expect there to be at least a few viruses or bacteria that would just grow arms and legs (because they “need” to) and walk into the research laboratories and pummel to death the researchers working on new antiviral and antibacterial strategies.”
There is. What do you think Staff Infections are (at least the ones that are drug resistant)?
Many didn’t. There was a major extinction of many aquatic lifeforms from this event also likely due to acidification.
oops, sorry. wasn’t meant for you. Too tired I guess.
Many didn’t. There was a major extinction of many aquatic lifeforms from this event also likely due to acidification.
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