The effects of nearby supernovae on the biosphere have been the object of intensive study be geologists in recent years, in the attempt to account for abrupt changes in the history of life on this planet. Cf. D. Russel and W. Tucker, “Supernovae and the Extinction of the Dinosaurs,” Nature 229 (Feb. 19, 1971), pp. 553-554. Sudden extinctions were followed by the appearance of new species, quite different from those preceding them in the stratigraphic record. In a relatively brief interval whole genera were annihilated, giving way to new creatures of radically different aspect, having little in common with the forms they replaced. See N. D. Newell, “Revolutions in the History of Life,” Geological Society of America Special Papers 89, pp. 68-91; Cf. S. J. Gould and N. Eldredge, “Punctuated equilibria: the tempo and mode of evolution reconsidered,” Paleobiology 1977, Vol. III, pp. 115-151. Thus over the past two or three decades many geologists and paleontologists have found themselves increasingly drawn to the view that the observed abrupt changes in the biosphere, such as that which marked the end of the Mesozoic and is thought to have brought with it the extinction of the dinosaurs, among other animal groups, could best be explained by the exposure of the then living organisms to massive doses of radiation coming from a nearby supernova. The radiation would annihilate many species, especially those whose representatives, whether because of their large size or for other reasons, were unable to shield themselves from the powerful rays; at the same time new organisms would be created through mutations or “macro-evolution.” See Velikovsky’s comments in “The Pitfalls of Radiocarbon Dating,” Pensée IV (1973), p. 13: “. . . in the catastrophe of the Deluge, which I ascribe to Saturn exploding as a nova, the cosmic rays must have been very abundant to cause massive mutations among all species of life. . . .” Animals would suffer much more severely than plants—on plants the principle effect would be mutagenic. See K. D. Terry and W. H. Tucker, “Biologic Effects of Supernovae,” Science 159 (1968), pp. 421-423.].
http://www.knowledge.co.uk/velikovsky/earth.htm
Care to help me make a list of all the 'kooks' - throughout history who have been proven by time to be genius? Until recently electromagnetism was also a 'kook' theory, the Sun was SUPPOSED to be an electrically inert body...the clockwork Universe 'hung together' through magnetism and nothing but nothing dared to interfere with the rotation of the 'heavenly spheres' - yet it did, something did and quite severely. Recently. Within historical times.
Pity we can't ask the people who left us this evidence what it might have been that killed the creatures they depicted here:
