[no subject]

["Jomana Moss" <eustacia1@mail.com>]

Hello all,

I am a newcomer, and as I have been browsing through the archives of this forum 
I must say that I am quite impressed with the immense amount of knowledge that 
has been so well articulated by everyone! I am, by far, no paleontologist, nor 
am I a dinosaur expert, but I recently became interested in the dinosaurs in my 
study of zoonotic viruses. I know, it seems a far stretch between the two, but 
last year (before I graduated college) I stumbled upon some new thoughts that I 
hoped could be discussed (or even trashed!) by some of you. Thanks in advance 
for hearing me out :o)

During college, my interest in Level 4 viruses (the uncurables) brought me to 
wonder why these types of viruses do not infect reptiles, or if they do, why 
reptiles do not show symptoms of the diseases they cause. This fostered my 
interest in herpetology, which recently led to an interest in dinosaurs. Given 
the current "warm-blooded/cold-blooded" dinosaur debate, I wondered if it might 
be possible to consider the idea that IF dinosaurs were warm-blooded, the 
following MIGHT be true:

1. Dinosaurs were susceptible to viruses, like most warm-blooded animals.

2. A level-4-type "dinosaurian" virus may have evolved and infected the 
dinosaurs, explaining the already-in-process decline of the dinosaurs before 
the asteroid crash, and explaining the rapidity of their final demise.

3. The cold-bloods survived this outbreak because reptiles do not get mammalian 
viruses.

I know I'm probably sounding like science fiction right now, but there is one 
more point I'd like to discuss and get your opinions about as well. I've always 
thought of frogs and toads as the "canary in the coal mine" so to speak. They 
are very sensitive to changes in their environment, and usually are the first 
thing to die off in any kind of climactic change. If the asteroid and the 
following nuclear winter killed off the adaptable dinosaurs, why did the 
sensitive amphibians survive?

Thank you so much for considering my thoughts, and I would love to hear 
feedback from any or all of you!

Best regards,
Jomana
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