Re:Dinosaur extinction

["Charles W. Johnson" <cwj2@eskimo.com>]

On Sun, 1 Mar 1998, Stanley Friesen wrote:

> At 11:08 PM 2/28/98 -0800, Charles W. Johnson wrote:
> >Dr. David King of Auburn University claims that a 300 km crater 
> >caused by an impactor striking Gondwanaland is associated with the 
> >P-Tr extinction.

[snip; I am not qualified to answer for Dr. King. He may be reached
at kingdat@mail.auburn.edu]

> 
> [The URL you give does not, in any way, present any evidence.  It merely
> present the author's model of the extinctions as fact, with no supporting
> discussion - something that is this controversial should at least be
> presented as undecided, not as fact].

I agree. I cited the URL because I knew that was one location of his
claim, albeit not supported by evidence. I suspect that the primary reason
for the perhaps inappropriate certitude of the phrasing in the chapter
is its intended audience: firstly, the text from which it comes is not
one on dinosaurs in general, or on dinosaurs in general; it is a text on
dinosaurs within Alabama specifically, and the American east generally.
Secondly, the text online is in fact condensed from the original. Thirdly,
it is intended as a text for an amalgam of both geology students and
laymen, and not all of those geology students may be interested in
paleontology.

But in any case, I did not cite the web page so much as evidence for his
claim, but rather evidence *of* his claim; eg, to give an example of what
his claim happens to be.

-- 
[Charles W. Johnson <cwj2@eskimo.com> - http://www.eskimo.com/~cwj2]
|    Heathen@Undernet (there is a Heathen@Dalnet. I am not he.)    |
|<BriceW:#atheism> Is this where you gfo instaed of Church?!       |
[                 My opinions are mine alone. Duh.                 ]