RE: Insects at K/T boundary

[N.Monks@xxxxxxxxx (Neale Monks)]

>Darryl raises an important I've often wondered about.  Time of year should
>be quite important; an "impact winter" could have quite different effects if
>it occurs when it is already winter in a particular hemisphere (and
>organisms are already acclimated) then if it occurs in the height of summer.
>And again - lets not forget that there are both northern and southern
>hemispheres whose seasons are out-of-phase and equatorial zones that have
>little seasonality! -Roy

Just a thought - most of today's biodiversity is around the tropics. Most
of those animals (inc. insects and mammals) and plants are not going to be
adapted for "summer" or "winter" since the year is much the same
year-round. Even if we had temperate zone animals at the end-Cretaceous at
one or other pole prepared for the "nuclear winter" via hibernation, this
doesn't help the tropical stuff - including insects, mammals, etc...

Neale.


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>From  Neale Monks' Macintosh PowerBook, at...

Department of Palaeontology, Natural History Museum, London, SW7 5BD
Internet: N.Monks@nhm.ac.uk, Telephone: 0171-938-9007
Telephone (international): 0044 171 938 9345

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