Re: Dr. Bakker, Dr. Horner, The 'Dino-Pandemic' & The Canard About Declining Dinosaur Diversity

[bucketfoot-al@justice.com]

To everyone who replied to my off-the-cuff, shoot first
and ask questions later post of yesterday on this topic
(that's just the way I am by nature :>)

I'd like to say 'thanks'!  I had no doubt that reading
y'alls replies would be an educational experience and I
was certainly right. I lapped them up eagerly as an
enthusiastic 'paleophile' should.

I am not sure if I rated the kind of long reply that
Frank Bliss wrote, but it was a fascinating read and I
truly appreciated it.  

Frank, I see your points and far be it from me to want
to stifle debate or curtail the throwing out of ideas
into the arena of debate.  (But you will permit me to
observe that I disagree with your notion that the rules
of trial law are akin to those governing the concept of
'jihad'.  The worst excesses of our legal system are,
in the end, still those of a civilized variety - and
this comes from a retired lawyer who has, ever since
law school, consciously avoided the private company of
other lawyers and finds the entire field to be a quite
unsatisfying one personally.  But hey, it gave me a
chance to serve my country in uniform when I would have
been too old to join the routine way and for that I am
grateful).

I do have a confession to make, however.  I am indeed
invested in the notion that dinosaurs were the biggest,
baddest, most successful, and most interesting critters
that ever walked our planet - unlike the - to me - far
less interesting puny mammals.  Having been mentally
invested in this concept since getting my first
dino-book (the huge one illustrated by Zdenek Burian)
almost 40 years ago, I am naturally averse to any
hypothesis that suggests otherwise (diseases slowed
down the dinosaurs? hah!)

Of course it could only be a catastrophe like Chixculub
that could have wiped them out.  Which is why when I
first heard of the Alvarez hypothesis I instinctively
knew that this one HAD to be right.  So you might say
that I am starting from a conclusion and then logically
defending it, which I would submit is a better position
to be in than, say, Dr. Horner, who is starting from a
conclusion and ILLOGICALLY defending it (re: TRex as
solely a scavenger).

OBTW Frank, about those TRex arms;  Dr. Bakker says
that as the TRex's head grew larger and larger the arms
shrank to allow the animal to better be able to balance
out the heavy head with the rear part of the body.  I
suspect that he is correct. Plus when you have a mouth
that can bite through even an Ankylosaur's hide (as
demonstrated on that wonderful BBC show that came out
last year), who the heck needs arms that will just get
in the way????  And remember, the arms of Allosaurids
also proportionately shrank as their head grew bigger
(compare Allosaurus Fragilis with Giganotosaurus
Carolinii for example).  

I read Dr. Bakker's "Dinosaur Heresies" when it first
came out and must say that I agree with him about 99%
of the time (except when he goes off trying to find
alternate causes for the K-T extinction.  Its funny,
the discovery of the Chixculub crater quieted him down
on these musings for a number of years, but I guess its
like - well, a VIRUS - it keeps coming back to bite
him.)

*LOL*

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