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Supernova Storm Wiped Out Mammoths?
Discovery News ^ | 09/28/05 | Jennifer Viegas

Posted on 10/04/2005 11:47:27 PM PDT by planetesimal

A supernova blast 41,000 years ago started a deadly chain of events that led to the extinction of mammoths and other animals in North America, according to two scientists.

If their supernova theory gains acceptance, it could explain why dozens of species on the continent became extinct 13,000 years ago.

(Excerpt) Read more at dsc.discovery.com ...


TOPICS: Culture/Society
KEYWORDS: archaeology; catastrophism; clovis; clovisimpact; evolution; extinction; godsgravesglyphs; history; impact; mammoth; supernova
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To: planetesimal

Author doesn't know what she's talking about.....Michael Moore is still around.


21 posted on 10/05/2005 1:02:38 AM PDT by BulletBobCo
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To: Don W
Thanks for the link, but that site design is so mid-nineties it merits only a quick glance, and a quick and fruitless search for, e.g., the word 'methane' confirms the wisdom of moving on.

I can't think of a single person, let alone scientist, who denies that glaciation occurs in cycles governed by solar and planetary factors. I can think of somebody who aims to profit directly from a dubious collation of information. The guy flogging that book.

22 posted on 10/05/2005 1:04:05 AM PDT by planetesimal (All is flux)
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To: SoDak
But that's in spring. Wouldn't the coming warming, albeit a short warm season, allow predation and deterioration?

Not if the carcase sinks into the permafrost. Gets covered with muskeg (no oxygen) and gets frozen even in mid summer.

Siberia is generally fairly flat, and in such places holes tend to get iced over, (often year round) OR muskeg forms a layer over a small lake or hole. The muskeg might be 10 feet thick but its floating. Big animals call fall through (or little animals in the case of my little brother who had to be pulled out of a muskeg hole while picking blueberries one year), and sink to the bottom where the lake may never thaw.

Flowers do not necessarily mean spring. There are flowers up here that bloom late (since summer is so short).

23 posted on 10/05/2005 1:31:08 AM PDT by konaice
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To: konaice

Your position then seems plausible. Contrary to popular belief, SD has no permafrost, and so I'm not familiar with the peculiarity of the geography. However, I have not seen this position forwarded in what I've read of scientific work on these beasts.


24 posted on 10/05/2005 1:35:07 AM PDT by SoDak
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To: planetesimal

The 6,214 miles-per-second iron-rich grains would have riddled everything like bullets.


25 posted on 10/05/2005 1:35:09 AM PDT by Savage Beast (Sin in the name of God is the ultimate blasphemy.)
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To: SoDak
However, I have not seen this position forwarded in what I've read of scientific work on these beasts.

Well I can't think of any other way something as large as a mammoth can die X thousand years ago and be almost intact today. It has to fall into some place where it freezes and gets burried quickly because the north will not allow a food source to go unused for long.

By the way, another mammoth was just discovered in Siberia.

26 posted on 10/05/2005 1:43:18 AM PDT by konaice
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To: konaice

Very cool. I find the idea of perhaps cloning one very fascinating. I'm much more interested in the more recent mega fauna, such as the Mastadon or the giant sloths, than the dinosaurs.


27 posted on 10/05/2005 1:46:15 AM PDT by SoDak
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To: konaice

Where do you think lieberals come from? And ol' Red Zone?


28 posted on 10/05/2005 2:21:52 AM PDT by dhuffman@awod.com (The conspiracy of ignorance masquerades as common sense.)
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To: planetesimal

Well, "the guy flogging his book" sold one to me, and I read and thoroughly enjoyed it, and learned a few things about the author's branch of plate tectonics theory studies. I lent it to my dad, but it seems to have gone missing.

For the price, I'll probably buy another, and not just because I was intrigued by the scenario presented, but because I LOVE reading.

He also goes into magnetism and galaxial mechanics (albeit merely glancing off same) in a most unique manner in the book.

I'm not saying he's dead right, nor is he dead wrong, but he presents a series of compelling arguments for his theory, and is worth reading. He does sometimes seem to be preaching at times, mind you, but what author doesn't? < BG >.


29 posted on 10/05/2005 2:26:32 AM PDT by Don W (Nevermind, I live in CUBA-NORTH!)
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To: DannyTN
You know how big a loaf those guys can eat?


30 posted on 10/05/2005 2:28:16 AM PDT by Leroy S. Mort
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To: Jeff Chandler
Bush doesn't care about mammoths.

Aw, hell. There goes another two hundred billion...

31 posted on 10/05/2005 2:29:49 AM PDT by papertyger
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To: The Red Zone

Call me crazy, but we share 95% of the DNA of most primates, yes? Ceretainly, our DNA is close to that of Neanderthals.


32 posted on 10/05/2005 2:37:03 AM PDT by SALChamps03
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To: planetesimal
If their supernova theory gains acceptance, it could explain why dozens of species on the continent became extinct 13,000 years ago.

Seems the much more likely explanation is the arrival of man at about the same time. The same thing happened to many large mammal species in Australia after mankind arrived on that continent.

33 posted on 10/05/2005 2:37:32 AM PDT by Godebert
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To: konaice
Here's a pretty well preserved one. This is really amazing stuff.

Dima, a frozen baby Mammoth In 1977, the first of two complete baby mammoths was found—a 6–12-month-old male named “Dima.” His flattened, emaciated, but well-preserved body was enclosed in a lens of ice, 6 feet below the surface of a gentle mountainous slope.1 “Portions of the ice were clear and others quite brownish yellow with mineral and organic particles.”2 Silt, clay, and small particles of gravel were found throughout his digestive and respiratory tracts (trachea, bronchi, and lungs). These details are important clues in understanding frozen mammoths. Because most mammoths were fat and well fed, Dima may have suffered before death from one of the many problems common to baby elephants. Within their first year of life, 5–36% of elephants die.

34 posted on 10/05/2005 2:41:05 AM PDT by Caipirabob (Democrats.. Socialists..Commies..Traitors...Who can tell the difference?)
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To: The Red Zone
Neandertal DNA is not close enough to Homo sapiens DNA for this to happen.

Reference? I doubt you have any of this Neardertal DNA, but there are many scientists who believe Neadertal DNA is widespread in modern day humans.

But an intact sample of pure Neandertal DNA? I think you are daydreaming or reading too much SF.

35 posted on 10/05/2005 3:11:29 AM PDT by John Valentine
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To: konaice
"For in those days there were giants in the earth that bread with the son of man".

Actually, what the Bible says is that the "sons of God" bred with the daughters of men and their offspring were "giants." Exactly what this means is highly debatable, but folk memory of Neanderthals is likely to be it.

36 posted on 10/05/2005 3:44:23 AM PDT by Restorer (Illegitimati non carborundum)
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To: planetesimal
Seems to me that if there were a Supernova blast within 250 LY of earth, even 40K years ago, there would be ample astronomical evidence of such..

Any Astronomers here?
Is there any evidence of a Supernova within say, 500 LY of earth within, say, the last 100K years?
Any evidence at all?

Concerning the presently existing astronomical evidence of supernova blasts that have been recorded, how old are they? ( regardless of distance )
How old is the presently seen evidence of those explosions?
Is it fairly easy to recognize the post-supernova evidence?

I don't recall hearing/reading of any nearby (relatively) evidence of large clouds of ionized particles, x-ray emmissions from massively accelerated solar mass, etc....
Seems to me if you're going to claim "supernova killed the mammoths", pitted craters in mammoth tusks is not primary evidence to validate your claim..
The primary evidence is the remains of a supernova..
Where is it???

37 posted on 10/05/2005 3:46:11 AM PDT by Drammach (Freedom; not just a job, it's an adventure..)
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To: Restorer

Sorry, bad wording. I very much doubt folk memory of Neanderthals is behind this Bible story.


38 posted on 10/05/2005 3:47:55 AM PDT by Restorer (Illegitimati non carborundum)
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To: planetesimal

My previous posts were written before reading the article.

Bad habit.

But seriously, folks, this is a truly idiotic article. To believe it, you must believe that a supernova 250 light years from Earth affected North America, and only NA, in at least two separate events tens of thousands of years apart.

It seems to me that mammoth tusks riddled with iron-rich particles would be more likely to be related to a localized event, perhaps a volcanic eruption, than to an astronomical event that mysteriously affects all of NA but not the rest of the planet.

You must also believe that saber-toothed cats were less able to take shelter in a cave or elsewhere than elk or moose or (regular-size) bison!

It is possible that the actual science makes more sense than this idiot article.


39 posted on 10/05/2005 3:58:17 AM PDT by Restorer (Illegitimati non carborundum)
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To: planetesimal

That was interesting, Thanks.


40 posted on 10/05/2005 4:12:45 AM PDT by PeteB570
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