RE: Extinction

["Allan Edels" <edels@email.msn.com>]

Dan said:
>>.... In fact, I remember reading in the April issue of
>>Discover (last year's) that the meteor might have thrown up a ring of
debris
>>around the Earth which cast a shadow during the day and screwed up the
Earth's
>>climate even more. ...

Please bear in mind that I _still_ haven't determined if that story was
their April Fool's story.  :-)

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Concerning extinction via bolide:

        There are many different factors, and additional mechanisms that a 
bolide
impact would engender.  Often overlooked is the potential major reduction of
the Ozone layer (by 80-95%!).
Some people have talked about the heat/shock wave that would travel around
the earth  (Bear in mind, that not all areas of the planet would be equally
affected by even this).  'Everyone' knows about the dust in the atmosphere
from the impact, and the soot from the resultant fires. I really could go on
for a few more paragraphs, but it's late...

        Whatever the effects or their primary causes may have been, we know that
the dinosaurs DID disappear, as did the sea reptiles (mosasaurs,
plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs), as did the ammonites, rudisks, enantiornithes,
and several other groups and species.  Many others were drastically reduced.
The length of time, and the number and kind of events responsible are still
open to debate.

        But the event occurred - the dinosaurs are gone, the frogs and mammals 
and
birds lived on.....

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Betty - I like your idea about the pineal gland.

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        Allan Edels