A Mysterious Crater’s Age May Add Clues to the Dinosaur Extinction • Hacker News Board

Re: A Mysterious Crater’s Age May Add Clues to the Dinosaur Extinction

#11

Post by slipframe » Sun, Jun 20, 2021, 7:48 PM UTC

caymanjim wrote: post #5

Timwi wrote: post #3

I dislike that these articles always refer to the dinosaurs and their “extinction” or “demise” or similar terms. The clade of dinosaurs is not extinct. Birds are dinosaurs. People need to know this. They should just talk about the extinction of the pterosaurs instead. Not only would it be accurate, it would also implicitly teach that not everything alive then was a dinosaur, including the famous pterodactyl.

I think most people who care know that birds are dinosaurs. What purpose does being pedantic serve? Is there a single word term that more effectively describes all the large fauna that went extinct as a result of the Chicxulub impact (without delving into further pedantry around that)? Words are a convenient shortcut and most people know what's meant by "dinosaurs".

Kids who like dinosaurs tend to appreciate the pedantry. Isn't that reason enough?

Re: A Mysterious Crater’s Age May Add Clues to the Dinosaur Extinction

#12

Post by bostonsre » Sun, Jun 20, 2021, 8:11 PM UTC

caymanjim wrote: post #5

Timwi wrote: post #3

I dislike that these articles always refer to the dinosaurs and their “extinction” or “demise” or similar terms. The clade of dinosaurs is not extinct. Birds are dinosaurs. People need to know this. They should just talk about the extinction of the pterosaurs instead. Not only would it be accurate, it would also implicitly teach that not everything alive then was a dinosaur, including the famous pterodactyl.

I think most people who care know that birds are dinosaurs. What purpose does being pedantic serve? Is there a single word term that more effectively describes all the large fauna that went extinct as a result of the Chicxulub impact (without delving into further pedantry around that)? Words are a convenient shortcut and most people know what's meant by "dinosaurs".

I think highlighting that link can give more people a better long term view of earth and having that longer term view of earth can make people care more about being better sheppards to our planet. Some people view dinosaurs in a really disconnected way and their link to now can be hard to comprehend. Highlighting the link between dinosaurs and birds can help show how amazingly old and connected our home is by giving people a glimpse of how incredible evolution is and how fleeting life is.

Re: A Mysterious Crater’s Age May Add Clues to the Dinosaur Extinction

#13

Post by Tagbert » Sun, Jun 20, 2021, 8:57 PM UTC

Timwi wrote: post #3

I dislike that these articles always refer to the dinosaurs and their “extinction” or “demise” or similar terms. The clade of dinosaurs is not extinct. Birds are dinosaurs. People need to know this. They should just talk about the extinction of the pterosaurs instead. Not only would it be accurate, it would also implicitly teach that not everything alive then was a dinosaur, including the famous pterodactyl.

People who want to make that distinction often describe the KT event as “extinction of non-avian dinosaurs”. It still glosses over the fact that the extinction impacts many other life forms that it hits the high notes while getting across the idea that birds are still dinosaurs.

Re: A Mysterious Crater’s Age May Add Clues to the Dinosaur Extinction

#14

Post by Cipater » Tue, Jun 22, 2021, 10:55 AM UTC

Firefox throws up an "SSL_ERROR_BAD_CERT_DOMAIN" error when I click on this link.

Chrome is giving me "NET::ERR_CERT_COMMON_NAME_INVALID"

This is quite surprising. Anyone experiencing the same?

Edit: 15 mins later, the link works. But I have to sign up to read it.