Posted on 04/11/2003 2:34:46 PM PDT by SteveH
EGS-AGU-EUG Joint Assembly, Nice, April 2003
Mass-extinction controversy flares again
Core from asteroid crater fuels debate on what wiped out the dinosaurs.
10 April 2003
REX DALTON
[photo]
The dinosaurs were wiped out 65 million years ago. © alamy.com
A claim that the asteroid that struck Mexico 65 million years ago did not cause the mass extinction that wiped out dinosaurs triggered heated debate at a meeting this week.
The announcement is based on preliminary analysis of the first core drilled into the 185-kilometre Chicxulub asteroid crater near the Yucatan Peninsula. Gerta Keller of Princeton University in New Jersey says that she has found microfossils there hinting that abundant plankton survived for at least 300,000 years after the impact.
Many believe that the impact shrouded the Earth in dust and debris, shutting down plant photosynthesis and leading to the rapid demise of most creatures, from marine microorganisms to dinosaurs.
But Keller reckons that the signs of life in the crater core are "the smoking gun" that the asteroid didn't cause the widespread die-out, properly called the Cretaceous-Tertiary (K-T) boundary. What's more, a lack of evidence of compaction in the core hints that the impact crater was much smaller than was thought, says Keller's colleague Wolfgang Stinnesbeck at the University of Karlsruhe, Germany.
So the group subscribes instead to the idea that a series of asteroid impacts brought about the K-T boundary.
Jan Smit, a geologist at Vrije University in Amsterdam who is also studying the crater's sediments, disagrees. He counters that what Keller's team labels 'fossils' are simply spheres of crystal. Plus he cites seismology studies that support a major asteroid having created the Chicxulub crater.
These divergent views were aired at a joint conference of the European Geophysical Society, the American Geophysical Union and the European Union of Geosciences in Nice, France. Listeners were shocked and stunned that two groups could disagree so much.
But the story of the K-T boundary has been long been controversial. It was first suggested about 25 years ago that a life-obliterating asteroid plunged into the Earth to trigger the extinction.
Now dozens of scientists around the world are analysing the results of the first drill of the crater, completed in February 2002, to glean new data on the events of 65 million years ago. Other drills are planned, including one closer to the centre of the impact point, to provide further fuel for debate.
Rex Dalton is the West Coast Correspondent of the journal Nature
© Nature News Service / Macmillan Magazines Ltd 2003
More proof you have absolutely no idea of that which you speak. More than 75 percent of all extant species (not just the dinosaurs) became extinct at the K-T boundary.
I suspect it was hiding in a deep underground bunker. But maybe someone can get a suggestion to Rummy...? :-)
So how many species were there before the K-T boundary? How many after? To the nearest hundred will be sufficient. Who counted them?
Your statement is just part of the evo garbage dished out constantly without any evidence. The fact is that of the major classifications of living animals, the only one that became extinct at the 65 million year or so point, is dinosaurs. Reptiles, amniotes, fish, mammals, birds, etc. all survived just fine into our time.
Of course, you've shown only the shallowest grasp of math in the past, Mr. 1720, so I doubt you'll actually understand the above paragraph. Of course, you've also shown a shallow grasp of science and religion, so at least you're consistent.
You are insulting instead of answering the question posed to you - as usual. The question was how many were there 65 million years ago and how many after. You can not answer the question and neither can those who make that claim. What that means is that the claim is absolute garbage.
In addition, to back up my statement I pointed out the numerous classifications of animals which have survived through the 65 million year 'barrier' that the evolutionists claim existed WITHOUT ANY EVIDENCE. Of course they say this happened because they cannot give any trace of mammalian evolution, in other words 'the dog ate the homework' excuse usually given by evolutionists.
Fact remains therefore that my statement is correct. The only major classification of animals that went totally extinct at that time is dinosaurs and any explanation the pseudo-scientists of evolution want to make up has to deal with that fact.
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