Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!bloom-beacon!oberon!sdcrdcf!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!sol!urban
From: urban@sol.SPS.TRW.COM (Michael Urban)
Newsgroups: sci.misc
Subject: Re: Dinosaurs killed by DAIDS?
Message-ID: <256@algol.sol.SPS.TRW.COM>
Date: Fri, 25-Sep-87 16:42:39 EDT
Article-I.D.: algol.256
Posted: Fri Sep 25 16:42:39 1987
Date-Received: Sun, 27-Sep-87 07:42:18 EDT
References: <1057@mipos3.intel.com>
Reply-To: urban@algol.UUCP (Michael Urban)
Distribution: na
Organization: TRW Inc., Redondo Beach, CA
Lines: 28

In article <1057@mipos3.intel.com> ekwok@cadev4.UUCP (Edward C. Kwok) writes:
>
>I am told that dinosaurs became extinct within a very short period of 
>time, leading scientists to believe that some catastrophic event caused
>the extinction (e.g. large meteorite struck the earth etc.) Does anyone
>know of any theory being proposed that blamed a virus for their extinction?
>I can imagine a virus attacking a particular nucleic acid sequence found 
>only in dinosaurs, leading to inability to produce, say dinosaur growth
>hormone or any other essential protein. Or plainly causing dinosaur 
>acquired immune deficiency syndrome. I am afraid the human species may
>be facing the same problem.

The idea of an epidemic being the cause of the extinction of
the dinosaurs seems a bit suspect, since ALL of the very
diverse species of dinosaurs, but not the smaller reptiles, 
were wiped out at approximately the same time.  

It's very easy to think of "the dinosaurs" as one big
homogenous species of critter, but of course they were
undoubtedly as genetically assorted as the mammals are
today (with, I assume, interesting variations according
to climate, vegetation, etc.)  

-- 
   Mike Urban
	...!trwrb!trwspp!spp2!urban 

"You're in a maze of twisty UUCP connections, all alike"