Extinction is a recurring theme in the history of planet earth. 5 times
in the last 500mil yrs a cataclysm wipes out dominant species
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How do they know this??
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According to what I learned in public school (and a million Stephen Jay Gould essays): the fossil record.
No way. You know what they say about fossils?
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Is this the part where we start talking about the geological timeframe of rock strata?
Why are there like three different extinction threads running around all of a sudden? Did humanity get hit by a spontaneous self-destruction syndrome?
No way. You know what they say about fossils?
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Uh, they're old...?
Why are there like three different extinction threads running around all of a sudden? Did humanity get hit by a spontaneous self-destruction syndrome?
[hippy voice]2012 Man... It will happen.[/Hippy voice]
I find the cycle of extinctions and subsequent rediversification quite interesting and read about it often. Were my parents less religious, I might have gone into paleontology instead of artificial intelligence.
No way. You know what they say about fossils?
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If it's too loud, you're too old?
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Well, in private schools we have time machines.
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Really. It is the nature of all things to end, in time. Why must this be an event of sadness? From the ashes of this reality something new, something greater will be born.
Let us rejoice for new birth rather than weep for the fading of the old, tired existence. The loss of a species is but a step on the road to the death of the world.
Really. It is the nature of all things to end, in time. Why must this be an event of sadness? From the ashes of this reality something new, something greater will be born.
Let us rejoice for new birth rather than weep for the fading of the old, tired existence. The loss of a species is but a step on the road to the death of the world.
F@#+in' hippie.
I find the cycle of extinctions and subsequent rediversification quite interesting and read about it often. Were my parents less religious, I might have gone into paleontology instead of artificial intelligence.So religion kept you from paleontology but drove you to AI???
Rather, it was something I could study without disapproval.
The End is nigh. All told, it has been nigh for quite a while. When the first pre-humans climbed down from the trees, the end started being nigh. Let us all rejoice in the utterly irrelevant nighness of the End.
Whats really funny is that, geologically, the advent of humanity is going to look a lot like a sudden catastrophic event.
I suppose one species of dinosaurs could have developed intelligence, raised a civilization, and nuked themselves out of existance. Hey, its less far fetched and has more evidence than some things people want taught in schools..
Oh yeah, that whole "end of the world in December" thing. I actually forgot about it.
The stars are almost right!
The stars are almost right!
How to explain to your children what will happen on december 22
Uh, they're old...?No way. You know what they say about fossils?
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They say, fossils are god's way of testing your faith.
Wait, maybe that is dinosaurs.
I don't know.
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I don't know I find this whole extinction theme to be so unorginal...I mean they have done it 5 times already. And I thought Hollywood was bad with the remakes.
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Well, it is a scary topic. It probably sells a certain level of tickets automatically.
Otherwise, the Hollywood types wouldn't keep pounding at the door.
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Whats really funny is that, geologically, the advent of humanity is going to look a lot like a sudden catastrophic event.
I suppose one species of dinosaurs could have developed intelligence, raised a civilization, and nuked themselves out of existance. Hey, its less far fetched and has more evidence than some things people want taught in schools..
I've always been intrigued by that option, with really, really ancient civilizations having existed perhaps hundreds of millions of years ago populated by, I don't know, walking squids, without there being anything left for us to know if they actually did.
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As a matter of fact what the OP is talking about are "mass extinctions", not just extinctions. Your usual, run of the mill, everyday extinctions happen all the time, and slowly. When an animal undergoes an evolutionary process for long enough, a "new version" of that animal is created - essentially, a new species. Sometimes a single species branches into several new ones - but the important thing is that the original is no more. That, by name and function, is extinction.
"mass extinction" is when, in a time of great environmental stress, noticeable percentages (sometimes even the majority) of species that live on Earth at that time become extinct - some simply by evolving into something else, and some by dying out. Depends on the speed of the mass extinction - check out the ice age vs whatever killed the last of the dinosaurs.
You could argue that the extinctions associated with the ice age were just the start of the current mass extinction.
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You could argue that the extinctions associated with the ice age were just the start of the current mass extinction.
Doesn't sound right to me since the source of the environmental stress is so different now than it was at the height of the ice age (though it is worth to note that Earth is in a very cool period, in regard to itself in the duration of time when life existed here, which does lend merit to your claim).
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The beauty of untestable theories is that they skip bothering with things that get in the way, such as rational analysis and scientific method.
I've always been intrigued by that option, with really, really ancient civilizations having existed perhaps hundreds of millions of years ago populated by, I don't know, walking squids, without there being anything left for us to know if they actually did.
Well, technically that would be a conjecture, rather than a theory.
You could argue that the extinctions associated with the ice age were just the start of the current mass extinction.Doesn't sound right to me since the source of the environmental stress is so different now than it was at the height of the ice age (though it is worth to note that Earth is in a very cool period, in regard to itself in the duration of time when life existed here, which does lend merit to your claim).
There is pretty strong evidence that anthropogenic influences were large drivers of megafauna extinction during the Late Pleistocene. In fact the first wave of these extinctions for some parts of the globe happened as late as a thousand years ago or so for places like Madagascar or the South Pacific.
Right. There were 26 periods of warming and cooling, most of which were a lot more severe than the late pleistocene, without causing any mass extinction.
Usually other extinctions were accompanied by another animal filling the niche. The pleistocene extinctions were so severe that nothing has filled in the niche: that animal AND anything that might do its job are POOF.. gone.
We also have humans showing up in the americas, australia, and asia and an accompanied extinction at roughly the same time. If humans didn't do it, they seem to show up at an awful lot of crime scenes.
Here's hoping for some mass pinkskin extinction.
Goblins forever!
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But you depend on our garbage to live!
If we're gone, there's no more half-chewed banana pies for you!
The beauty of untestable theories is that they skip bothering with things that get in the way, such as rational analysis and scientific method.
I've always been intrigued by that option, with really, really ancient civilizations having existed perhaps hundreds of millions of years ago populated by, I don't know, walking squids, without there being anything left for us to know if they actually did.
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Correct, glad to have you on board. Now, be interesting.
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I've always been intrigued by that option, with really, really ancient civilizations having existed perhaps hundreds of millions of years ago populated by, I don't know, walking squids, without there being anything left for us to know if they actually did.Whats really funny is that, geologically, the advent of humanity is going to look a lot like a sudden catastrophic event.
I suppose one species of dinosaurs could have developed intelligence, raised a civilization, and nuked themselves out of existance. Hey, its less far fetched and has more evidence than some things people want taught in schools..
Thats what they get for using sustainable, biodegradable kelp based information storage system!
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But you depend on our garbage to live!
If we're gone, there's no more half-chewed banana pies for you!
Pfft.
We stocked up on Twinkies, back when it looked like they were gonna disappear. Our best minds calculate that they will keep us well nourished until we figure out how to use your leftover can-openers.
Begone, pinkskins, begone!
You failed your saving throw. Good-bye ecosystem!
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But you depend on our garbage to live!
If we're gone, there's no more half-chewed banana pies for you!
Pfft.
We stocked up on Twinkies, back when it looked like they were gonna disappear. Our best minds calculate that they will keep us well nourished until we figure out how to use your leftover can-openers.
Begone, pinkskins, begone!
We shall take that forbidden knowledge to the grave!
<Scene wanders off from the clenched fist of the last human into an accelerated time montage of the surviving goblin civilization, and eventually into a large temple of in which a single, shining can float above thousands of goblins kneeling in front of the High Shaman, who's holding the manual of a recently recovered can-opener>
Finally, after all these centuries, after scourging every inch of this world, our heroes have found the legendary, the secretive, That-Which-Was-Thought-To...
Damn it, Bill! We want beans already!
<Then goblin civilization crumbles during the civil war that follows the discovery that, after all, the can was only turkey juice>
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But you depend on our garbage to live!
If we're gone, there's no more half-chewed banana pies for you!
Pfft.
We stocked up on Twinkies, back when it looked like they were gonna disappear. Our best minds calculate that they will keep us well nourished until we figure out how to use your leftover can-openers.
Begone, pinkskins, begone!
We shall take that forbidden knowledge to the grave!
<Scene wanders off from the clenched fist of the last human into an accelerated time montage of the surviving goblin civilization, and eventually into a large temple of in which a single, shining can float above thousands of goblins kneeling in front of the High Shaman, who's holding the manual of a recently recovered can-opener>
Finally, after all these centuries, after scourging every inch of this world, our heroes have found the legendary, the secretive, That-Which-Was-Thought-To...
Damn it, Bill! We want beans already!
<Then goblin civilization crumbles during the civil war that follows the discovery that, after all, the can was only turkey juice>
The thing that evolved in the tin of Turkey juice crawled out to look at the two creatures fighting. They looked edible.
<The thing about cans of Turkey juice was it was never about feeding the ones who opened it>
Thread necromancy is a recurring theme in the history of the Paizo messageboards. Especially when holidays hove into view and hands fall idle of their regular distractions...
However: The Shoe Event Horizon
Thread necromancy is a recurring theme in the history of the Paizo messageboards.
Look in the Upper-Right of your web browser:
You can see all the 'Currently Active' threads using the navigation-tabs: << first < prev | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | next > last >>All the threads are active ALL THE TIME, and PMG + his minions have put a
lot of effort into making the board easy to use and navigate.
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However: The Shoe Event Horizon
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Does your link belong > here < ?
You didn't bother to explain why it's relevant, so I'm not sure...
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Goblin best minds... So what will you guys do the day after we humans disappear and you've finished off the Twinkies?But you depend on our garbage to live!
If we're gone, there's no more half-chewed banana pies for you!
Pfft.
We stocked up on Twinkies, back when it looked like they were gonna disappear. Our best minds calculate that they will keep us well nourished until we figure out how to use your leftover can-openers.
Begone, pinkskins, begone!
It's called The Spam Project and it's Top Secret, you pinkskin stooge.
It's called The Spam Project and it's Top Secret, you pinkskin stooge.Goblin best minds... So what will you guys do the day after we humans disappear and you've finished off the Twinkies?But you depend on our garbage to live!
If we're gone, there's no more half-chewed banana pies for you!
Pfft.
We stocked up on Twinkies, back when it looked like they were gonna disappear. Our best minds calculate that they will keep us well nourished until we figure out how to use your leftover can-openers.
Begone, pinkskins, begone!
If humans are going to disappear soon why should I go to work anymore?
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The universe is an optimisation challenge. Only the most munchkiny build will survive!
How mass extinctions drove the evolution of dinosaurs
http://phys.org/news/2014-01-mass-extinctions-drove-evolution-dinosaurs.htm l
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