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

[John Bois <jbois@umd5.umd.edu>]

On Thu, 6 Jan 2005, Jaime A. Headden wrote:

> John Bois (jbois@umd5.umd.edu) wrote:
>
> <Cart before the horse: Mass extinction event occurred...best known
> mechanism is radiation...birds must have been vulnerable...therefore, all
> surviving birds must have found cover.>
>
>   What is described here is not circular, wherein its premise would
> provide the conclusion, and vice versa. Instead, this is just a just-so
> story, an hypothesis to explain an event.

OK.

> John Bois continues to ignore the other animals in the situation and if
> this is due to lack of research then so be it, but aquatic, aerial, and
> terrestial life being wiped out as
> finally as it was in these realms cannot have such a succinct explanation
> as he has alluded to with regards to those avian groups that did die
> versus pterosaurs.

It's not so much that I ignore other extinctions, it's just that birds are
a good test for inclusive hypotheses, i.e., explanations that seek to
include every clade in an instant biotic turnover.