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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
 Posted - 03/28/2007 : 16:41:14
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According to a study mentioned in this article, after the dinosaurs died off, only a few now-extinct lines of mammals filled some of their ecological niches. Ancestors of modern mammals did not. Those mammals that did, went extinct. Interesting study, which contradicts the standard assumption (and common-sense notion) that mammals rushed en mass to fill out applications for job vacancies.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
Edited by - HalfMooner on 03/28/2007 16:48:53
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filthy
SFN Die Hard
USA
14408 Posts |
 Posted - 03/28/2007 : 17:48:14 [Permalink]
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And here I thought that they'd thrown a global party with barbequed dinosaur as the main course....
A very interesting article and one that requires thought. Thanks...
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"What luck for rulers that men do not think." -- Adolf Hitler (1889 - 1945)
"If only we could impeach on the basis of criminal stupidity, 90% of the Rethuglicans and half of the Democrats would be thrown out of office." ~~ P.Z. Myres
"The default position of human nature is to punch the other guy in the face and take his stuff." ~~ Dude
Brother Boot Knife of Warm Humanitarianism,
and Crypto-Communist! 
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2007 : 05:42:32 [Permalink]
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| Well the life span of most creatures is only 10 MY so its not a surprise that the land creatures would go extinct, it is the way of things. |
"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Kil
Evil Skeptic
USA
13477 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2007 : 08:47:44 [Permalink]
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To answer the question:
Maybe when the dinos died out most of the mammals, realizing that they were not food anymore, bought hammocks and laid around drinking beer and generally took to hanging out and sharing stories about how bad things had been for them. Not much evolution took place at that time because the mammals were busy doing nothing.
Lacking motivation most of them didn't do a thing until the planet got cold again. Of course, by then, they had become so lazy that most of them died out waiting for the bad weather to let up.
The few that survived to speciate were Type A personalities, as mammals go, and up until the change in the weather, they were just annoying to those mammals happy to reminisce about the old days. The old thinkers had them making their hammocks and kept them busy doing menial tasks because they couldn't stand the constant nagging.
And so it went…
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Uncertainty may make you uncomfortable. Certainty makes you ridiculous.
Why not question something for a change?
Genetic Literacy Project |
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Vegeta
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
238 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2007 : 09:16:41 [Permalink]
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quote:
Well the life span of most creatures is only 10 MY so its not a surprise that the land creatures would go extinct, it is the way of things.
I think the point, if I got it correctly, is that the mammals who did fill the dino's void not only went extinct, but also were evolutionary dead ends. |
What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a pink shirt before?
"I was asked if I would do a similar sketch but focusing on the shortcomings of Islam rather than Christianity. I said, 'No, no I wouldn't. I may be an atheist but I'm not stupid.'" - Steward Lee |
| Edited by - Vegeta on 03/29/2007 09:17:54 |
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BigPapaSmurf
SFN Die Hard
3192 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2007 : 09:58:54 [Permalink]
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I felt the conclusions they reached were a stretch considering so very little is known about environmental factors in the few million years after the exticntion event(s).
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"...things I have neither seen nor experienced nor heard tell of from anybody else; things, what is more, that do not in fact exist and could not ever exist at all. So my readers must not believe a word I say." -Lucian on his book True History
"...They accept such things on faith alone, without any evidence. So if a fraudulent and cunning person who knows how to take advantage of a situation comes among them, he can make himself rich in a short time." -Lucian critical of early Christians c.166 AD From his book, De Morte Peregrini |
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Vegeta
Skeptic Friend
United Kingdom
238 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2007 : 10:02:21 [Permalink]
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| Perhaps... I'd like to see these trees they made. |
What are you looking at? Haven't you ever seen a pink shirt before?
"I was asked if I would do a similar sketch but focusing on the shortcomings of Islam rather than Christianity. I said, 'No, no I wouldn't. I may be an atheist but I'm not stupid.'" - Steward Lee |
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HalfMooner
Dingaling
Philippines
15831 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2007 : 13:22:18 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Kil
To answer the question:
Maybe when the dinos died out most of the mammals, realizing that they were not food anymore, bought hammocks and laid around drinking beer and generally took to hanging out and sharing stories about how bad things had been for them. Not much evolution took place at that time because the mammals were busy doing nothing.
Lacking motivation most of them didn't do a thing until the planet got cold again. Of course, by then, they had become so lazy that most of them died out waiting for the bad weather to let up.
The few that survived to speciate were Type A personalities, as mammals go, and up until the change in the weather, they were just annoying to those mammals happy to reminisce about the old days. The old thinkers had them making their hammocks and kept them busy doing menial tasks because they couldn't stand the constant nagging.
And so it went…
You know, that all just has the ring of truth to it.
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“Biology is just physics that has begun to smell bad.” —HalfMooner
Here's a link to Moonscape News, and one to its Archive. |
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H. Humbert
SFN Die Hard
USA
4574 Posts |
Posted - 03/29/2007 : 14:52:15 [Permalink]
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quote:
Originally posted by Vegeta
Perhaps... I'd like to see these trees they made.
Here are a few.
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"A man is his own easiest dupe, for what he wishes to be true he generally believes to be true." --Demosthenes
"The first principle is that you must not fool yourself - and you are the easiest person to fool." --Richard P. Feynman
"Face facts with dignity." --found inside a fortune cookie |
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When dinos died, what did mammals do?
