This one is for you paleontology geeks:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...dinosaurs-died
Cool story regardless :up:
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This one is for you paleontology geeks:
https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2...dinosaurs-died
Cool story regardless :up:
Wow. Great read. Thanks!Quote:
Originally Posted by Aimless
A couple comments and thoughts from that article...
First, the description of the impact leaves a big impression, as did the state of the fossils at the Tanis site -- it's a wonder anything beyond bacteria survived at all.
Second, the climate before and the climate after (modern era included) the impact are so different. The impact created a permanent new normal. Its like the world as we know it is still reeling from that catastrophe...
Last, the era of the dinosaurs was so long, and living things in that time were all variations on long dominant themes, and then an environmental change occurred that almost nothing was able to adapt to. And the new themes that followed resulted in a species literally capable of preventing an impact like that from happening again. Fortuitous accident? Gaia adapting? Hmmm.
The Smithsonian published a follow-up article to the New Yorker article, focused mostly on reservations and complaints about what has been said about the Tanis site in the mass media vs. what has been published in scientific papers.
https://www.smithsonianmag.com/scien...hsonian.com%29
I'm reading this New Yorker article now. Just from the first two paragraphs, the idea of an ejection traveling halfway to the moon keeps sticking out in my mind :bulb:
Yeah, wow. That's the best description of the impact - or big impacts in general - I've ever read.