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133 points kristianp | 2 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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kevinkeller ◴[] No.42161353[source]
I love this type of articles where we can reconstruct what happened so long ago just based on careful observations.

Some other instances I've come across:

* The K-Pg extinction event that wiped off dinosaurs had the impact it did because the asteroid happened to impact a shallow water region. This kicked up a lot of sulfur (in gypsum) that further affected global climate: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater#Effects

* Earth likely had rings ~466M years ago. We deduced this by looking at impact craters from that time period, and seeing that they all lie near the equator (accounting for continental drift): https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0012821X2...

* Earth's rotation period was probably frozen at 21h, ~600M years ago, likely due to interaction between lunar and solar tides. This resonance could have been broken by ice ages (!!!). Amazing to think that global climate affects earth's rotation: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earth%27s_rotation#Resonant_st...

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Timwi ◴[] No.42163600[source]
The dinosaurs were not “wiped off”, by which I mean they are not extinct. This is an extremely widespread misconception that popular science articles like this one keep perpetuating. We should do better and help people understand that (some) dinosaurs survived and evolved into modern birds. Birds are dinosaurs. Dinosaurs are alive today.
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1. Qem ◴[] No.42163881[source]
When referring to dinosaurs, most people are thinking about non-avian, teethed dinosaurs anyway.
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2. Timwi ◴[] No.42183196[source]
I get that, but most people don't know that birds evolved from dinosaurs that survived the asteroid (which I think is both interesting and important to know) and I think it's the responsibility of science communicators to... communicate that.