The Day the Dinosaurs Died
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Based on some "reading" of the rocks inside where the giant asteroid hit the Earth 66 million years ago, they have come up with an interesting timeline of what happened in the immediate time when it hit.
"...the rock core offers clues to how the collision instantly affected life on land. Hurtling to Earth at some 45,000 miles an hour, the impact likely sent out a flash of energy that ignited landscapes within a 900 miles radius.
“Mexico was on fire immediately,” Anderson says. The impact also flung geologic shrapnel high into the skies that plummeted back around the globe, igniting fires even farther from the impact zone. And in the top few inches of the core’s sediment, the scientists found bits of charcoal, likely created by those raging wildfires.
Intriguingly, the researchers also found biomarkers from the fungal breakdown of wood, which further suggests that these burned bits came from a landscape set ablaze. The team thinks a mighty tsunami rippled across the Gulf of Mexico—and perhaps around the world—and that the watery wall bounced back after crossing the Mexican highlands, dragging with it charred terrestrial remains."
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@klaus said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
What I don't quite understand is how the asteroid hypothesis fits to the data which indicates that it took millions of years for the dinosaurs to die out.
I am of the ilk that thinks they never did die out completely. They evolved into modern birds. Yep. I am one of those.
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@mark said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
@klaus said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
What I don't quite understand is how the asteroid hypothesis fits to the data which indicates that it took millions of years for the dinosaurs to die out.
I am of the ilk that thinks they never did die out completely. They evolved into modern birds. Yep. I am one of those.
I'm with you. I cannot imagine that some modern lizards and reptiles are not related as well.
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Apparently, sea turtles are closely related to dinosaurs.
[Insert Mitch McConnell joke here]
I know, I know, no turtle shaming.
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@mark said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
@klaus said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
What I don't quite understand is how the asteroid hypothesis fits to the data which indicates that it took millions of years for the dinosaurs to die out.
I am of the ilk that thinks they never did die out completely. They evolved into modern birds. Yep. I am one of those.
As am I. Especially when I watch crows and ravens.
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I agree that birds are the closest relatives (or maybe even) dinosaurs.
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@taiwan_girl said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
I agree that birds are the closest relatives (or maybe even) dinosaurs.
Proven by DNA testing. I am reading a book right now regarding evolution and bipedalism and it notes that crocodiles and birds diverged kind of together from dinosaurs and then diverged from each other.
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I wonder, if we'd die out today, how much of who we were and how we lived could be reproduced from evidence in 100 million years from now? I assume the space probes, such as Voyager 1 and 2, could theoretically still be largely intact (unless they crash into a planet or star). But what other man-made thing would survive 100 million years? What might a city like NYC look like if left alone for that long?
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@klaus said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
theoretically still be largely intact
Watch out for the Oort Cloud
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@klaus said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
What might a city like NYC look like if left alone for that long?
Probably much the same as it looked in the 80's.
Proud supporter of Plan 2525. Everything you think, do and say will be in the pill you took today.
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@doctor-phibes said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
@klaus said in The Day the Dinosaurs Died:
What might a city like NYC look like if left alone for that long?
Probably much the same as it looked in the 80's.
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