Birds and mammals may have displaced dinosaurs gradually in the 20 million years before the disastrous asteroid collision traditionally blamed for wiping dinosaurs out, say a New Zealand evolutionary biologist and a British colleague. Professor David Penny, from Massey University, and Matt Phillips from Oxford University said fossil and molecular evidence did not support the theory of an asteroid-impact extinction. Popular theory says that birds and mammals flourished on Earth only after an asteroid impact wiped out the dinosaurs and pterosaurs, or flying reptiles, at the end of the Cretaceous period 65 million years ago. But Professor Penny and Dr Phillips are not convinced. "We agree completely with the geophysicists that an extraterrestrial impact marks the end of the Cretaceous," Professor Penny said. "But after 25 years they have still not provided a single piece of evidence that this was the primary reason for the decline of the dinosaurs and pterosaurs."

Writing in the October issue of Trends in Ecology and Evolution, the two scientists have said that instead of accepting the geophysicists' theory at face value they want scientists to take a closer look at the fossil and genetic evidence. "Although the asteroid at the end of the period was real, we think it's natural evolutionary processes that made the difference," Professor Penny said. They believe that mammals and birds started to out-compete dinosaurs between 80 to 90 million years ago.

View: Full Article | Source: New Zealand Herald

It's hard to believe that early mammals and birds could have wiped out so many reptiles that had adapted to all kinds of adverse conditions for millions of years.

i say a alien war happend and they wiped out the dinosaurs

Don't be ridiculous. The dinosaurs were the aliens, and they were being bombarded by the evil imperical saurian government that they came to the new world (literally) to escape.


...I have no idea where that came from.

are you sure why dont ya read this read the interview http://www.burlingtonnews.net/alieninterview.html

Any interview which starts with the line "I´ve made with a non-human and reptilian being in December 1999" deserves to be treated with utmost skepticism.

why is that you just cant jump to conclusions and say the interview never happend

I don't think mammals were big enough to pose any real competition to dinosaurs...
Birds on the other hand - they were simply a branch of dinosaur (theropods to be more exact) that evolved.

So in a sence dinosaurs didn't become extinct - they are the birds of today.

This would be hilarious...

If he didn't believe it. Then it's just sad.

some 1 give me proof that a alien war never happend around that time and ill shut up

It is impossible to prove a negative.

You would not.

Besides, I already told you that it was the bombardment of the peaceful earth dinos by psychic alien saurian blondes with a fetish for mutilating livestock. Give me proof that it wasn't.

lol why does every 1 act like they was alive back when this happend for crying out loud grow up and comeing from a person that thinks crop circles are fakes thats pretty sad

I was alive back then. Prove that I wasn't, kiddo.

you got to be jokeing non of us was born back in that time aliens where here on earth befor we was

What?

Dude i was born then.
I saw what happened. Prove that I didn't. Can't? That's because i was.

I can back him up on that. We used to play Canasta on Tuesdays. Prove that we didn't.

who do you think made us think about that for a sec

What? Canasta? The Dinos showed us how to play. Prove that they didn't.

ill tell you who made us aliens made us not jesus aliens

The stegosaurus was pretty good. Prove that he wasn't.

now you guys wana act silly thats ok with me

Oh, now we're acting silly?

You're a riot, blazer. Prove that you aren't.

whats there to laugh about if you onley knew the real truth about the bible you would understand

Blazer doesn't seem to be catching on very quickly...

*shakes head*
No hope.

catching on what ??

Catching onto the fact that it is impossible to prove a negative.

What they have been throwing at you is a bunch of situations in which they are asking you to prove that something didn't happen.

At a certain point you were supposed to say something along the lines of "But I can't prove that you didn't play canasta with a stegasaurus on tuesday nights..." at which point everyone would have a hearty laugh and you would have understood that it is impossible to prove a negative situation like the ones presented to you.

You didn't do that though, and everyone just gave up.

so if i said jesus never claimed to be a god im wrong because i wasent there to see the truth??

what are we really waiting for why dont we use these so called time machines that all these secert i dont know what to call them ill just call them people say we have the technology dont we whats really holding us back???

Umm... no one has a time machine.
Have you even been to pre-school??

as far as i know we do but the people that have them wont tell us cause its a cover up

and as far as i know im not the one that is lost here there is so much to learn

Of course they do. How silly of me to think i could pass it by your eyes.
The truth is, me Stellar, Aquatus and Sera and a few others have used one to go back to the dinosaur times.
Prove we didn't.

Oy.

Sorry, i'm just compelled by what i'm seeing here.

i cant prove that i wasent there and same with all the skeptics no skeptic can say that jesus isent real because no 1 was there the day he was born

You are an increddibly naive being!

Aargh! After the fourth negative, I just gave up and decided not to post anymore, but here I am again!



[RANT]Blazer, you are not attempting to learn! Your entire approach to anything is deciding that something is so and insisting that it is. The humble claim of not knowing everything loses it philosophical merit when it is used as an excuse rather than an understanding. Since you have made it absolutely clear that you are not getting the message that we are trying to send, I will spell it out for you.

Nobody here object to your ideas! Nobody here objects to your beliefs! Nobody here objects to any of the wild claims that you make! Does that seem odd? Do you feel that they do? They do not! What they object to is your utter lack of intelligent research. Your absolute silence on logical deduction. And your blatant lack of understanding in the difference between belief, science, credibility and open-mindedness.

In short, you fail completely to realize that understanding the logic behind others reasoning does not require accepting it to be real, and because of that, you feel free to equate your poorly supported whims with fully thought out scientific arguments. If you would only take the time to learn the definitions of scientific methodology, logical reasoning, and belief vs science, you would gain back a lot of the credibility you have lost over the past several weeks, and still retain the ability to argue for that which you believe in; in fact, I would think that you would be taken far more seriously than you are now.[/RANT]

Doggone it, I went and lost my temper. I apologize for the flame. I do hope, though, that you will consider what was said. Despite the frustration, the though behind it remains true.

Do you not remember the private convo we had? I am a non corporeal being that exists out of time, there for I know everything that happened, therefor I know when you're right and when you're wrong. Accept it. Theres no proof to the contrary.

Blazer, baby, grow up... yeh, alot of us believe their is what you would call "aliens" out there, but It dosent make sence, your claims... aliens would have no reason to kill the animals on earth.. why would they? and if they were here and did that, why havent they come back? they just came, killed the dinos, and left without a trance of evidence or ever showing up agian? please.. aliens have not discovered this world yet, never been here, and probaly wont untill a long time..

There really is no hope.

Blazer, do tell, how old are you?

Mammals would have been small, so they could have easily hidden from many of the larger animals and simply targeted dinosaurs eggs killing off the next generation. Also mammals look after there young for a long time, which gives them an advantage over many reptile species simply abandoning their young soon after the egg hatches. Early mammals would have also been very similar to modern rats, and we all know who fast they breed, they could simply went insane on the safety in numbers concept.

I just find it hard to believe that aliens killed off the dinosaurs. I've always thought that it was the ice age that did it.

Luckily thats not the theory which is being proposed, just what some posters with over-active imaginations think

Over imaginative.
That's an understatement.

lol some of you are so lost

Blazer if you have something substantial to back up your theory with then please provide it here and we will listen, otherwise there is little point in you continuing this conversation.

Lost as to figuring out how you think... yes.

no you are lost from the truth because you think you know everything