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Index][Thread Index][Subject Index][Author Index] Re: The Permo-
Triassic extinction killed the dinosaurs, according to Fox News
What an excellent example of sloppy journalism. The sad thing is
that the paper could have made a very interesting news story in
the right hands. The authors found exceptionally high
concentrations of nano-scale silica dust in the end-Permian
coals, which they suggest combines with organic pollutants from
the coal to cause elevated rates of lung cancer. They think the
acidic fallout from the Siberian Traps eruptions accelerated
erosion to produce the silica dust, which washed into the peat
bogs. By the way, read that first sentence carefully, and you
discover that plants were walking the earth along with the
dinosaurs 250 million years ago. Maybe give it to your students
and say "spot the errors." At 9:32 AM -0500 1/8/10, Thomas R.
Holtz, Jr. wrote: >"The tremendous volcanic eruption thought to
be responsible for Earth's >largest