Re: What really happened 65 Ma ago (not a joke)

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> Which is said to have happened millions of years BEFORE the KT event.

The one geologist who says this seems to have overlooked a few important 
things. Like, for example, the physics of crater formation.

> Now I know the initial size estimate for the Chixulub rock was 
> exaggerated,

Well... it was thought to have been between 10 and 20 km across, and now the 
literature value is 12 km, right?

> but that still would have displaced a LOT more
> water than the recent plate movement did.

Oh yes. See the last sentence of
http://www.dinosauria.com/jdp/impact/wham.htm

> Makes you feel bad for the dinos on the East coast of the
> Americas & West coast of Europe/Africa,

Not only. The Caribbean was open to the Pacific... plus the Western Interior 
Seaway still existed, having its north coast about in the place of today's 
US-Canadian border...

> > The latest--heat radiating from re-entering
> > ejecta--fails to explain bird survival.
>
> Also fails to explain [...]

So what. It isn't like the impact produced _nothing but_ that radiation 
heat.

> I feel I should also note that it seems to me that the only
> somewhat large-bodied survivors were cold-blooded(crocodiles, turtles,
> snakes) and sharks. And we know that crocodiles & snakes can survive on
> much less food than warm-blooded creatures, eating as little as once a
> month[or even year].

This is the textbook explanation for why they survived.

> The only mammals at that time were very small and
> at least most of them were capable of burrowing, right?

Most or all seem to have been. Many mammals did die out, however.

> And U also have to figure in the Mokele Membe,
> which has been recorded up to recent times ;)

:o)