Permian-Triassic Extinction?

[Svartalf]

So was Mendel

[Clinton Huxley]

They might as well stick a plastic test tube to the cover of New Scientist and stick it on the magazine racks with the Dora the Explorer magazines.

[Pappa]

They might as well stick a plastic test tube to the cover of New Scientist and stick it on the magazine racks with the Dora the Explorer magazines.

I happen to love the New Scientist, even if they do print complete shite occasionally.

[Clinton Huxley]

They might as well stick a plastic test tube to the cover of New Scientist and stick it on the magazine racks with the Dora the Explorer magazines.

I happen to love the New Scientist, even if they do print complete shite occasionally.

It's not as good as it used to be, same as everything else.

[Pappa]

They might as well stick a plastic test tube to the cover of New Scientist and stick it on the magazine racks with the Dora the Explorer magazines.

I happen to love the New Scientist, even if they do print complete shite occasionally.

It's not as good as it used to be, same as everything else.

I was always meaning to get that book, "Is it just me, or is everything shit?".

[Clinton Huxley]

They might as well stick a plastic test tube to the cover of New Scientist and stick it on the magazine racks with the Dora the Explorer magazines.

I happen to love the New Scientist, even if they do print complete shite occasionally.

It's not as good as it used to be, same as everything else.

I was always meaning to get that book, "Is it just me, or is everything shit?".

Look away now if you don't want to know the answer: Yes.

[Pappa]

They might as well stick a plastic test tube to the cover of New Scientist and stick it on the magazine racks with the Dora the Explorer magazines.

I happen to love the New Scientist, even if they do print complete shite occasionally.

It's not as good as it used to be, same as everything else.

I was always meaning to get that book, "Is it just me, or is everything shit?".

Look away now if you don't want to know the answer: .

For christ's sake Hux, spoiler that will you!!!!!

[JimC]

I lost a lot of respect for NS when they put the cover page of "Darwin was wrong". They had to know that the next day some creationist would be holding it up in front of a crowd.

My sentiments exactly! (mind you, I still buy it... )

And, so many of their recent articles on evolution seem to want to go back to the warm and fuzzy concept of group selection...

[JimC]

The article on the possible microbial link to extinctions was very interesting, but one bit annoyed the hell out of me:

This emerging branch of science is called biomarker analysis, or chemical palaeontology, and it is now so powerful that it threatens to make classical palaeontology obsolete.

What a load of crap.

It may well be a terrific extra source of information, but it adds to, rather than replacing the magnificent story of the past that is classical palaeontology

Just the usual New Scientist hyperbole.

And it is a common theme with many forms of science writing, to hype up anything new as a revolutionary overthrow of old, boring tired thinking...

DARWIN WAS GAY!!!!

I always thought he was quite melancholy, myself...

[cowiz]

The article on the possible microbial link to extinctions was very interesting, but one bit annoyed the hell out of me:

This emerging branch of science is called biomarker analysis, or chemical palaeontology, and it is now so powerful that it threatens to make classical palaeontology obsolete.

What a load of crap.

It may well be a terrific extra source of information, but it adds to, rather than replacing the magnificent story of the past that is classical palaeontology

Just the usual New Scientist hyperbole.

And it is a common theme with many forms of science writing, to hype up anything new as a revolutionary overthrow of old, boring tired thinking...

DARWIN WAS GAY!!!!

He recanted his gayness on hos deathbed. It's true that is.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

He recanted his gayness on hos deathbed. It's true that is.

Darwin killed hos? Was this in the Whitechapel area by any chance?

[ScholasticSpastic]

Flowers weakened the more established species. Then impacts happened.

Dunno if it's true that flowers played a role, but there weren't any prior to the Permian-Triassic Extinction and they appeared at about the same time, drastically altering ecosystems planet-wide. More established species like the saurians would have had a more difficult time adapting to flowers than the marginal generalist species like our ancestors. Flowering plants have a lot more avenues for making evolutionary leaps than non-flowering plants, including documented instances of mono-generational speciation both in nature and in our food crops. The advent of flowering plants would have kicked off much more rapid changes in food availability than many other sorts of events.

Also, I just like the idea of flowers killing off dinosaurs.

[Svartalf]

except of course dinosaurs did not start making a mark before the start of Trias... so flowers were actually in a plot with the dinosaurs to get rid of the older saurians

[Don't Panic]

They might as well stick a plastic test tube to the cover of New Scientist and stick it on the magazine racks with the Dora the Explorer magazines.

I happen to love the New Scientist, even if they do print complete shite occasionally.

It's not as good as it used to be, same as everything else.

I was always meaning to get that book, "Is it just me, or is everything shit?".

Sorry for the derail but I have both volumes of that book and it's well worth getting. Some very funny bits in it.

[recursive prophet]

Yo SS and JimC. Have missed reading you guys comments. Have you ever checked out the evo forum at TalkRational? Seems most of the former RDF posters like Dlx2, DarwinsBullDog, Steviepinhead, and many others have ended up there and I think you'd find it worth a look. I like to read rationala also, but for extensive evo discussions I think TR is now where the action is. Check it out.--Arpie