This is quick, random, and a little ranty.
There was a program on PBS last night about early dinosaurs. It seemed a little dated (I don't know, maybe from the late 80s/early 90s). I wasn't really watching it...since we don't have cable we end up watching a lot of PBS (it's either that or Are You Smarter Than a 5th-Grader, which is a different rant for another time).
Anyway...I really dislike these statements (I'm paraphrasing):
They make it sound like a coincidence. As if the Permian and Triassic periods somehow exist as fundamental divisions of time. Wrong. The Permian period ends because of the mass extinction. That's how it's defined!! I hear this all the time for the K-T as well on these, otherwise fairly enjoyable, popular science programs. It's not 'the dinosaurs became extinct at the end of the Cretaceous' ... it's 'the end of the Cretaceous is marked by a mass extinction, including dinosaurs'.
It's not that hard.
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