Researchers find smoking gun of world's biggest extinction

University of Calgary ^ | January 23, 2011 | Unknown

[DuncanWaring]

...caught in Waxman's nose hairs.

I'd rather be drawn-and-quartered.

[cripplecreek]

I tend to think all the mass extinctions were due to a combination of factors. At the time of the Chixalub impact things were looking pretty bleak for dinosaurs already. The indian subcontinent was experiencing a massive mantle plume eruption, the number of dinosaur species were already dwindling, The climate was changing, and a wave of radiation from a supernova was passing through our neighborhood around that time.

[DuncanWaring]

A being capable of creating the entire Universe is not capable of salting his creation with a few fossils?

[Just mythoughts]

The problem here is the 250 million year date ~ not a primordial soup ~ that'd been 3.5 billion years further in the past. The dating of this overlaps some of the deepest layers in the Antarctic Ice Sheet overlying the Gamburtsev mountains. The Gamburtsev's are 2.5 miles deep, are older than the Alps, yet show no signs of wear. They date back to the Carbonoferous Age ~ which is WAY back there. So, too much CO2 led to what? Did Earth get warm and everything died? We might ask why that ice didn't melt.

Personally I think it is a 'dating' problem. I do not doubt the find. I do not believe in the truncated events over impossible to prove eons of years. I believe there was one 'time-frame' over a consecutive span of time that caused this earth to become waste.

[barb-tex]

I bet they found Suv’s and coal fired power plants, and maybe a prehistoric coal powered Chevy Volt.

[FredZarguna]

West Virginia and Pennsylvania mostly.

Not even close.

Wyoming produces more coal than the whole Appalachian Region (and almost the whole US) combined. There's even more under the ground in Montana, but nobody wants to mine there because it's a big union state.

Have a look for yourself: http://www.eia.doe.gov/cneaf/coal/page/acr/acr_sum.html

[OldNavyVet]

I do not doubt their find but their dating is what questions their motives.

The Earth itself is about 4.6 billion years old.

From Steve Jones' "Darwin's Ghost," we have on page 195 ...

"The evidence comes not from our own planet, but from its satellite. The Moon flew off its parent after a giant impact. Because it stayed small, cold and undisturbed it gives a better picture of the past than its parent. A quick trip by the Apollo XI mission was enough to date it."

[sodpoodle]

http://fossil.energy.gov/education/energylessons/coal/gen_howformed.html

Contrary to what many people believe, fossil fuels are not the remains of dead dinosaurs. In fact, most of the fossil fuels we find today were formed millions of years before the first dinosaurs.

snip

Coal formed from the dead remains of trees, ferns and other plants that lived 300 to 400 million years ago. In some areas, such as portions of what-is-now the eastern United States, coal was formed from swamps covered by sea water.

[umgud]

I’m torn between either Bush or Palin as being responsible for this.

[DuncanWaring]

It’s obviously an un-holy alliance of the two.

[Just mythoughts]

The Earth itself is about 4.6 billion years old. From Steve Jones' "Darwin's Ghost," we have on page 195 ... "The evidence comes not from our own planet, but from its satellite. The Moon flew off its parent after a giant impact. Because it stayed small, cold and undisturbed it gives a better picture of the past than its parent. A quick trip by the Apollo XI mission was enough to date it."

I have yet to find any evidence that anyone knows exactly how old this earth literally is. I can accept the number in billions of years, but I would not stake my life as to the literal number.

I agree this earth is very very old, but I do not put much credibility in any who claim a specific age. Most especially when an 'age' of anything is then used as claimed evidence for the fairy 'tail' of evolution.

[Twinkie]

Aha! I knew it! Those dinosaurs were EEEEEVVVVIIIILLLLL!!! You can see it in their eyes!

[Ira_Louvin]

Coal is the remnants of decayed vegetative material not dinosaur.

If made past elementary school and did not know that you should have a serious talk with your school board.

[Twinkie]

Some brilliant scientists who had just cloned a man, thinking then they could do it from scratch, challenged God to a “man creating” challenge.

So, God got his pile of dirt ready for the contest. - The scientists started piling up their pile of dirt.

God reportedly said, “Oh no you don’t! You’ll have to get your own dirt!”

[chrisser]

If made past elementary school and did not know that you should have a serious talk with your school board.

I'm quite sure that everyone on the school board when I was in elementary school is as dead as the dinosaurs.

[Ira_Louvin]

Try and laugh if off, but there is no excuse for getting such a basic scientific question incorrect.

And still creationist wonder why the rest of the educated world mocks them.

[SeeSac]

A being capable of creating the entire Universe is not capable of salting his creation with a few fossils?

God is dishonest?

[Verginius Rufus]

Amazingly enough, considering how long ago this happened, this was also George W. Bush’s fault. It was because he didn’t care about Eskimos.

[bert]

That sir is a very funny joke worthy of an obamaboid defending unions or the health care bill

[The Comedian]

Dogs-and-cats-dying-together-mass-hysteria ping.

Frowning takes 68 muscles.
Smiling takes 6.
Pulling this trigger takes 2.
I'm lazy.