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Pastimes : Let's Talk About Our Feelings!!! -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: The Philosopher who wrote (52045)	8/19/1999 12:19:00 AM
From: Father Terrence	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 108807

Mass Extinction Rates Extinction rates have varied considerably over the history of life on earth. Paleontologists distinguish five episodes of "mass extinctions"--relatively short (1 million to 10 million year) periods during which a significant fraction of diversity in a wide range of taxa went extinct. The most significant mass extinction, as the end of the Permian (250 million years ago), may have eliminated 77 to 96 percent of species. Even apart from these mass extinctions, background rates of extinction are not constant. For example, for the past 250 million years, relatively high rates of extinction have occurred nine times--at intervals of approximately 26 to 28 million years. Two of these nine episodes were mass extinctions, one in the late Triassic, 220 million years ago, and one in the late Cretaceous, 65 million years ago. Global biological diversity is now close to its all time high. Floral diversity, for example, reached its highest level ever several tens of thousands of years ago. Similarly, the diversity of marine fauna has risen to a peak in the last few million years. wri.org

To: The Philosopher who wrote (52045)	8/19/1999 12:24:00 AM
From: jpmac	Respond to of 108807

Brain glitch. Frivolous stuck in the head in the matter concerned and in reference to an amorous dalliance. As in frivolous: of little weight or importance, lacking in seriousness, marked by unbecoming levity. And once again, that is enough on that topic. I was almost beginning to enjoy the discussion here again.

To: The Philosopher who wrote (52045)	8/19/1999 12:46:00 AM
From: Father Terrence	Respond to of 108807

Plan to Revive Extinct Tasmanian Tigers... The discovery of a complete female baby Tasmanian tiger (Thylacinus cynocephalus), born in 1866 and perfectly preserved in a jar of alcohol by a Mr Masters at the Australian Museum in Sydney, might have opened the way for a revival of the species. "There's a population waiting to be kick-started," said Professor Michael Archer, the museum's director, but (he told FT) "whether or not there is viable genetic material in that specimen is questionable… I think it will have been fragmented, which means you probably have to go through quite a number of cells to get the right fragments to put the whole sequence back together." However, he has also tracked down six other specimens kept in alcohol in museums around the world – including one in the British Museum – which could provide back-up genetic material. He suggests that the Tasmanian devil (Sarcophilus herrisi) might be closely-related enough to make a suitable incubator – although "the technology is not quite there yet." He was amazed that Ralph Cano of the California Polytechnic Institute had successfully extracted 12 kinds of living bacteria from 30-million-year-old insects preserved in amber. The Tasmanian tiger, a wolf-like marsupial called a "tiger" only because of the stripes across its rump, is thought to have become extinct 63 years ago, but the Sydney thylacine's DNA may be sufficiently preserved for cloning, as alcohol is less destructive than the formalin which is often used for pickling specimens. Mike Westerman, senior lecturer in genetics at La Trobe University, said it was possible that the thylacine could be cloned in the "not-too-distant future"; and Professor Archer said he was prepared to hand over the Sydney specimen to anyone with a serious cloning proposal. The 5ft (1.5m)-long animal was widespread across Australasia and New Guinea until it lost out to the dingo several thousand years ago, when it became confined to Tasmania. Here it was hunted to extinction as a livestock predator: this is the orthodox view, anyway. The last known example, Benjamin, died in Hobart Zoo on 7 September 1936. There have been numerous reported sightings since then in both Tasmania and on the Australian mainland, (see FT49:5-7, 42-47; 76:38-41; 81:10; 85:42; 100:17; 103:15); but there is no conclusive evidence of its survival, although hundreds of plaster casts of possible thylacine tracks have been made.Sunday Age (Melbourne), 1 June 1997; [R] 13 May, D.Telegraph, Brisbane Courier Mail, 14 May 1999.