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Chicken Little a Myth?
Fark linked up this IOL article detailing recent findings about the Chicxulub crater, thought to be the "smoking gun" providing direct evidence of an impact killing off the dinosaurs. Unfortunately it would seem Chicxulub crater is 300,000 years too old to be the direct cause, so now scientists are looking to see if perhaps a whole host of items, including several major impacts, may have been the culprit.
I'm not sure I trust scientific dating techniques well enough to let 300,000 years out of 65 MILLION mean anything.
Posted by: Sherri on March 2, 2004 08:52 AMYeah, I was wondering about that myself. I'm not sure what the margin of error is on 65MYA dating techniques. Of course, the article doesn't include them.
This is by no means conclusive, although the journalists think it is because the news release reads that way. I'm sure there'll be lots of debate as time goes by.
Posted by: scott on March 2, 2004 08:58 AMThe asteroid impact hypothesis is certainly plausible, but it is obviously not the only possibility. A list of alternate hypotheses has been compiled by the Morrison Natural History Museum and can be viewed at http://town.morrison.co.us/dinosaur/extinction/other.html
The fiction novel Full Circle by Michael Boyle uses one of these hypotheses as the basic premise in an end of the world medical thriller.