4 ms·

While I do find this fascinating (if it holds up), there is so much prior evidence for the impact, and for its devastating consequences globally, that this is u

While I do find this fascinating (if it holds up), there is so much prior evidence for the impact, and for its devastating consequences globally, that this is unlikely to change the course of paleontology.

btilly 8y ago
I disagree. And here are reasons. 1. It settles a question of whether the dinosaurs were already gone. 2. It let's us know what time of year the impact was. 3. We are literally seeing everything in that ecosystem. It is very, very rare to get a fossil record that shows us a whole ecosystem. (The best known example of mass fossils, tar pits, are very heavily biased towards scavengers. Mudslides will preserve a complete ecosystem, but usually not with the same quantity and quality as this one.) 4. For species after species you have complete preservation. Including soft tissue, body shape, skin, and so on. 5. He found tektites in amber. That is, we have pieces of the meteorite preserved in a substance that would preserve their chemical makeup. Once analyzed this will give us direct information about the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs that we could not have received any other way. For example we could learn whether it was a comet from the Oort cloud versus an asteroid from the inner solar system. 6. The quality of preservation is such that we not only can identify dinosaur feathers, we can identify where on the body those specific feathers came from. 7. The quality of soft tissue preservation is such that we can identify the diet that some of the animals ate. 8. The fact that the ammonite shell was initially pink upon being excavated suggests that we may be able to learn about the color of some of these things. Evidence of color is very hard to come by. If the story holds up, this site is important for a lot of reasons beyond adding to the evidence for a meteorite wiping out the dinosaurs. And if this is a partial list that is obvious now, I am sure that the list will get much, much longer.
- mannykannot 8y ago
  These are all valid reasons for saying that this is an important site, but only 1, 2 and 5 can tell us something about the extinction event itself.
  - garmaine 8y ago
    Most of the pressing paleontological questions are not about the extinction event itself.

btilly 8y ago

I disagree. And here are reasons. 1. It settles a question of whether the dinosaurs were already gone. 2. It let's us know what time of year the impact was. 3. We are literally seeing everything in that ecosystem. It is very, very rare to get a fossil record that shows us a whole ecosystem. (The best known example of mass fossils, tar pits, are very heavily biased towards scavengers. Mudslides will preserve a complete ecosystem, but usually not with the same quantity and quality as this one.) 4. For species after species you have complete preservation. Including soft tissue, body shape, skin, and so on. 5. He found tektites in amber. That is, we have pieces of the meteorite preserved in a substance that would preserve their chemical makeup. Once analyzed this will give us direct information about the meteorite that killed the dinosaurs that we could not have received any other way. For example we could learn whether it was a comet from the Oort cloud versus an asteroid from the inner solar system. 6. The quality of preservation is such that we not only can identify dinosaur feathers, we can identify where on the body those specific feathers came from. 7. The quality of soft tissue preservation is such that we can identify the diet that some of the animals ate. 8. The fact that the ammonite shell was initially pink upon being excavated suggests that we may be able to learn about the color of some of these things. Evidence of color is very hard to come by. If the story holds up, this site is important for a lot of reasons beyond adding to the evidence for a meteorite wiping out the dinosaurs. And if this is a partial list that is obvious now, I am sure that the list will get much, much longer.

mannykannot 8y ago
These are all valid reasons for saying that this is an important site, but only 1, 2 and 5 can tell us something about the extinction event itself.
- garmaine 8y ago
  Most of the pressing paleontological questions are not about the extinction event itself.