Did avian (bird) flu kill the dinosaurs?

[banquo's_bumble_puppy]

I was thinking (do too much thinking- need to get a life)...what if it wasn't a killer asteroid/comet that wiped out the dinosaurs? What if it is the very thing that threatens us now? Could certain diseases lie dormant in different species dna waiting to be re-activated when the time is right? And what about the irony of birds being (possibly) descended from dinosaurs? Just one of my crazy, crazy, posts...

[Swift]

The fact that lots of other species, other than dinosaurs, were wiped out at the same time (including ocean species and plants) would seem to rule out a disease.

[Maksutov]

Plus it would be hard to explain the iridium-rich KT boundary as a product of disease.

[mickal555]

not to mention the huge explosion :wink:

[Champion_Munch]

not to mention the huge explosion :wink:

Someone caught it on camera? :P

I agree, it doesn't sound very likely....60% of living species wiped out all within a very short time period...

with regards

[Eoanthropus Dawsoni]

The most recent guess I have read regarding the K/T die-off blames fungus. The impact disaster theory is a long way from consensus and may be showing a slight decline in popularity. Recently there seems to be an increase in geologists and paleontologists who now believe that the extinctions occurred over a broader time range. And among those who do see a rather sudden die-off, not all agree that it was due to a catastrophic impact. Because two events occurred more or less simultaneously does not necessarily mean they are related.