Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by lisper on Saturday May 07, 2016 @04:39PM
(#11651266)
> "I think it was a bad few months, really," Morgan says.
Actually, there's quite a bit of evidence that the dinos were wiped out in a matter of days, if not hours. The ejecta from the impact was launched out into space on sub-orbital trajectories. When it fell back, it heated the atmosphere and turned the whole planet into a giant convection oven.
Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by intrasight on Saturday May 07, 2016 @09:46PM
(#11652209)
I immediately thought of Seveneves as well. You know some time thousands of years in the future, the Earth's humaniods are going to ask how their ancestors survived the asteroid in our future.
Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by tommoor on Saturday May 07, 2016 @09:20PM
(#11652152)
Very simple and quick explanation as far as I remember it - the large dinosaurs that survived the initial impact were wiped out by the ensuing 'winter' and lack of food (they needed a lot to sustain themselves). Plenty of smaller creatures survived including types of dinosaurs that evolved into birds.
Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by Gibbon1 on Saturday May 07, 2016 @10:54PM
(#11652407)
I remember maybe fifteen years ago seeing a crude animation of the surface temperature around the globe in the hours after the impact. The material ejected from the crater reenters to atmosphere and fries everything under it.
Another comment I read from a geologist is you see lots of periods where various animals go extinct. But in this case whole clades of plants went extinct. That you don't see.
The size of the asteroid they thought would be the size of Staten Island, NY. The impact would generate a huge shock wave and high temapture, fire everywhere, so killing animals nearby (say 100 miles) within minutes.
Tsunami came next and wiped out everything nearby hundreds of miles+. The smoke and dust covering the air (think of volcano) so sunlight cannot enter Earth so there was a long cold winter, killing even more animals.
Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by sandworm101 on Saturday May 07, 2016 @03:08PM
(#11650904)
Title error because of old science. The asteroid killed off lots of things, but dinos were already on the way out. Maybe next year things will swing back, but atm the rock wasn't to blame.
Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by laumars on Saturday May 07, 2016 @04:08PM
(#11651170)
"a new study suggests" != "new science"
As good as it is to have new papers on the topic, let's not fall into the pop-science trap of thinking every new research will "cure cancer", "change our entire understanding of physics" and all the other premature comments that people make.
Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by JoeAltmaier on Saturday May 07, 2016 @09:38PM
(#11652189)
Dinos were not on the way out. That reading comes from a misinterpretation of the fossil record and bad statistics. Some species are represented near the extinction event; some are not found except in layers some time before the event. This is in fact the expected distribution with normal sampling. Since the record is fragmentary, and some species are hard to find in any event, its normal to not find them all exactly at the boundary between pre- and post-event.
Re:Geologists Find Clues In Crater Left By Dinosaur-Killing ...
by Retric on Saturday May 07, 2016 @06:39PM
(#11651668)
This may be an artifact of how sparse the fossil record is. If something was around for 0.5m years it's far less likely to be seen than something around for 5m years. Combined with the facts that smaller animals evolve faster, and efficient body-types are preserved. EX: Sharks.
Actually, there's quite a bit of evidence that the dinos were wiped out in a matter of days, if not hours. The ejecta from the impact was launched out into space on sub-orbital trajectories. When it fell back, it heated the atmosphere and turned the whole planet into a giant convection oven.
http://www3.nd.edu/~cneal/CRN_Papers/Schulte10_Sci_Chicxulub...
http://amincd.tumblr.com/post/5690584281/oxygen-deprivation-...
Were all the dinosaurs located in the same small area? Or did the remaining dinos die from the subsequent winter?
Happy to be corrected :)
Another comment I read from a geologist is you see lots of periods where various animals go extinct. But in this case whole clades of plants went extinct. That you don't see.
Start with this.
The size of the asteroid they thought would be the size of Staten Island, NY. The impact would generate a huge shock wave and high temapture, fire everywhere, so killing animals nearby (say 100 miles) within minutes.
Tsunami came next and wiped out everything nearby hundreds of miles+. The smoke and dust covering the air (think of volcano) so sunlight cannot enter Earth so there was a long cold winter, killing even more animals.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bU1QPtOZQZU
https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/apr/18/dinosaurs-in...
"...a huge tsunami that was triggered when the asteroid struck."
I think we need a different word for that scale of wave.
As good as it is to have new papers on the topic, let's not fall into the pop-science trap of thinking every new research will "cure cancer", "change our entire understanding of physics" and all the other premature comments that people make.