Re: Extinction due to "blue balls"

[Jeff Hecht <jeff@jeffhecht.com>]

For anybody who's interested, the journal reference is
(Miller et al, Environmental versus genetic sex determination; a 
possible factor in dinosaur extinction?  Fertility and Sterility, 
Vol.81, No.4, April 2004.)

The journal put out a press release, which was even less illuminating 
than the news story. I have a hazy recollection that somebody 
proposed this theory long ago, but I may be confused. As others have 
noted, it's very hard to give it any serious credence because it 
makes no effort to match the observed pattern of extinctions. In 
fact, I suspect it wound up in a fertility journal because the 
referees wouldn't ask any troubling questions about such things, or 
know that theropods were much closer to birds than to crocodiles.

-- Jeff Hecht

At 11:53 PM -0400 4/20/04, Tetanurae@aol.com wrote:
> Quoting from this article:
> <<But crocodiles and turtles had already evolved at the time of the great
> extinction 65 million years ago. How did they survive?
>
> "These animals live at the intersection of aquatic and terrestrial
> environments,
> in estuarine waters and river beds, which might have afforded some protection
> against the more extreme effects of environmental change, hence giving them
> more
> time to adapt," the researchers wrote.>>
>
> Well, aparently, all lizards and snakes were also at the intersection of
> aquatic and terrestrial environments....  As were ammonites.
>
> Pete Buchholz