Had to dig into the resources link, grab my pith helmet and find it.
No mention of T. Rex and the Crater of Doom.
Had to dig into the resources link, grab my pith helmet and find it.
No mention of T. Rex and the Crater of Doom.
I read that one back when, also another one (title escapes me right now) with a higher reading level, and around the same time "Rain of Iron and Ice" which is more general about large impacts. I picked up a book off remainder that claimed to prove that it was impossible, that was unintentionally amusing. There is also an edited anthology about the whole impact extinction discussion, it's around here somewhere. The evidence pro has continued to pile up, while the naysayers continue to die off.
I noticed that, near the end, one of those interviewed claimed the impact model doesn't weaken "survival of the fittest", which of course, it does -- it eliminates it.
Morphologically determined speciation seen in both the fossil and living record comes from the accumulation of mutations and from nothing else.
Extinction on the other hand comes from relatively sudden changes in environment, including introduction of new predators, but also natural climate change and impacts from space.