re: The Day the Dinosaurs Died........

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It was that the raptors had fricking feathers.

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He has high quality feather fossils that have tips of quills that match perfectly with nodules on the arm bones of the fossil found in the same spot. This sight may be one of the most important finds ever because of the way it was captured, preserved and now uncovered.

At least that is my impression from the article and the fact that the New Yorker published this and not some obscure archeo rag gives me hope.

The more interesting find to me was the burrow made as the mammal tried to run from the deadly ash cover.

you should read your emails

Growing up in the1980s, one of the biggest mysteries was what happened to the dinosaurs. Various theories were always put forth. Disease, climate change, evolution into birds, meteorite. And then it was like scientists got tired of thinking about it and just decided it was the asteroid. I don’t recall a “eureka” moment. No grand announcement as would be expected, considering the magnitude of the mystery. Why weren’t crocodiles and sharks etc killed off from the asteroid?

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And then it was like scientists got tired of thinking about it and just decided it was the asteroid.

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That's not accurate.

*Dramatic, sad music*

Charlton Heston: This is the Earth at a time when the dinosaurs roamed a lush and fertile planet. A piece of rock just six miles wide changed all that....

It hit with the force of 10,000 nuclear weapons. A trillion tons of dirt and rock hurtled into the atmosphere, creating a suffocating blanket of dust the sun was powerless to penetrate for a thousand years!

It happened before, it will happen again. It's just a question of when....

Damn. At least that'll never happen since we have so many oil field baws we could scramble up there to nuke it.