What
killed the mammoths
and
other behemoths that once roamed the Americas?
This mammalogist thinks it may have been hyperlethal disease.
An Interview with Ross MacPhee
Around
11,000 years ago, at the end of the Pleistocene epoch, North America
witnessed an extinction that claimed its mammoths, giant ground sloths,
camels and numerous other large-bodied animals. Exactly what happened
to these megafauna is unknown. Indeed, researchers have puzzled over
their disappearance for decades. Traditional explanations hold that
either dramatic climate shifts, or human hunting (overkill) extinguished
these species. But in recent years a new hypothesis has emerged. According
to Ross D. E. MacPhee, curator of mammalogy at the American Museum of
Natural History in New York City, extremely lethal disease, brought
over by humans unwittingly when they arrived in the New World, may have
wiped out those Ice Age giants.
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quiz!
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This
article is taken from Earthtrust.org
Mystery of the Silver
Rings
by Don White, Creator of Project Delphis
The young dolphin gives a quick flip of her head, and an undulating
silver ring appears--as if by magic--in front of her. The ring is a
solid, toroidal bubble two feet across--and yet it does not rise to
the surface! It stands erect in the water like the rim of a magic mirror,
or the doorway to an unseen dimension. For long seconds the dolphin
regards its creation, from varying aspects and angles, with its vision
and sonar. Seemingly making a judgement, the dolphin then quickly pulls
a small silver donut from the larger structure, which collapses into
small bubbles. She then "pushes" the donut, which stays just
inches ahead of her rostrum, perhaps 20 feet over a period of up to
10 seconds. Then, stopping again, she regards the twisting ring for
a last time and bites it--causing it to collapse into a thousand tiny
bubbles which head--as they should--for the water's surface. After a
few moments of reflection, she creates another.
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Additional
reading ... same subject
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