Posted on 02/26/2006 9:39:21 PM PST by tbird5
A mysterious cataclysm almost brought about the end of the world some 250 million years ago
The last time Earth experienced a mass extinction, some 65 million years ago, at the end of the Cretaceous period, there is little doubt about what happened. A humongous meteor slammed into the Yucatan Peninsula, incinerating everything around for thousands of miles. Plumes of vaporized rock blanketed the planet in a layer of thick ash, blocking the sun and choking off photosynthesis. The entire global ecosystem virtually collapsed in a geological eye-blink.
Though the dinosaurs might find it crass to say so, the late Cretaceous cataclysm that did them in was a planetary bad hair day compared to the mass extinction that occurred some 250 million years ago, at the end of the Permian period. The Permian event is probably the closest that life on Earth ever came to being completely extinguished. Around 95 percent of marine species and 70 percent of terrestrial vertebrates were wiped out -- a greater percentage of the Earth's species than the next two largest mass extinctions combined. The break in the fossil record at the Permian boundary is so severe that 19th-century geologists saw it as evidence of two completely separate creations of life.
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
In Intelligent Design, these mass extinctions are referred to as God's "DO OVERS"
Because the real end of the world hasn`t happened yet. That will happen in `08 if Hillary wins.
Yes, She who shall not be named, is the Anti-Christ
What's fascinating about the Cretaceous mass extinction was that had that 6-mile rock hit anywhere else on the surface of the earth, there would be no mass extinction resulting. The fall targeted a huge limestone bed, the burning of which caused the nuclear winter/mass extinction that resulted. There are only two such limestone beds of similar size on earth: Yucatan, and Dover. Talk about a bullseye! (or maybe a T-rex eye, as the bull hadn't evolved yet.)
Appropos of nothing, do you know the derivation of the name "Yucatan"? It seems the Spaniards landed there in 1520, and said (in Spanish): "What is this place called?" To which the local inhabitants naturally responded: "Yectetan!" Which is the local language for "I don't understand you!" (The kangaroo got its English name by a similar process.)
We evolved from what was left. Evolution happens..
Because we weren't here then.
Congressional Democrats are demanding an Independent Council be appointed to investigate whether or not the Bush administration had known about it before hand and decided not to prevent it. In other news, Sandy Berger was caught today hiding fossils in his pants and trying to remove them from the national museum.
**Yes, She who shall not be named,**
Been reading H. Rider Haggard haven't you.
When Atlantis sank, everybody was calling that "The end of the world." My family made out pretty good selling supplies to the survivors.
But in the previous "end of the world" during the last Ice Age, my family had quite a bit of our land in what is now Greenland end up under a mile of ice.
The ice is melting now- I wonder if it's too late to file a claim to get it back.
/sarc
The other, posted by another, is strictly a FR play on that. :-)
And there's my favorite english word, "armadillo."
I picture two Conquistadores coming across one for the first time:
"Mira- que es esto?" (Look- what's that?)
"No se' - es un armadillo." (I dunno- it's a little armored thing.)
Yes, friends, "armadillo" means 'little armored thing' in Spanish.
BTTT
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German is full of 'things' and 'stuff' as well:
Farbstoff = 'color stuff' = food coloring
Konservierungstoff = 'preservative stuff' = preservatives
Spielzeug = 'play thing' = toy
Flugzeug = 'fly thing' = aircraft
Kraftfahrzeug = 'power drive thing' = motor vehicle
Etc. But they really get poetic in anatomy. I.e.: Bauchspeicheldruse = 'belly spit gland' = pancreas.
There was a group of Indians in Arizona (if I recall) that the Spanish named the sinaguas. I think you can figure it out.
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