If I could dissect a sauropod | Hacker News Reader

If I could dissect a sauropod

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I recently discovered this blog via Adam Mastroianni's essay contest.

(my submission on "offensive horticulture" did not even make honorable mention haha)

Experimental History, the host of the contest, is a doing amazing work on democratizing science! Check it out

[0] https://www.experimental-history.com/p/blog-extravaganza-the...

[1] https://www.experimental-history.com

> (my submission on "offensive horticulture" did not even make honorable mention haha)

Do you have this posted anywhere? I for one would like to learn more about "offensive horticulture."

Thanks for asking :)

The original essay was pretty long, so I'm releasing it in chapters here:

[0] https://taylor.town/oh

Chapter 1: "Proplifting, Plant Piracy, and Dumpster Chocolates"

[1] https://taylor.town/oh-theft

If you haven’t run across https://www.crimepaysbutbotanydoesnt.com/ you may be in for a treat.

Discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41453455

Great article! I've just installed an rss reader for the first time in years specifically to subscribe to your site. Looking forward to reading more

Thank you, this really aligns with my interest. I'll definitely be reading more

The blog post recommended the TV show "inside nature's giants", and I second it.

The bit about the recurrent laryngeal nerve of the giraffe is particulary memorable: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cO1a1Ek-HD0

How did enough birds survive post-impact in order for them to still exist, if their ‘air sack’ lungs are so sensitive to air quality?

> How did enough birds survive post-impact in order for them to still exist, if their ‘air sack’ lungs are so sensitive to air quality?

The k-pg extinction was instant in a geologic sense, but in terms of individual animals it felt more like a slow decline. It took a few thousand years for the whole thing to happen[1]. With effects lasting into the 500,000 year range.

For most birds the air pollution was similar to what you see from large forest fires. Even when skies were orange in San Francisco a few years ago, birds weren't dropping dead. High AQI kills slowly, if you (or a bird) are not inhaling smoke directly.

But yes every bird within a few thousand kilometers of the impact site probably died instantly. Most birds and other animals were not within that radius.

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cretaceous%E2%80%93Paleogene_e...

From that wikipedia page: "The sedimentation rate and thickness of K–Pg clay from three sites suggest rapid extinction, perhaps over a period of less than 10,000 years."

I wonder if far in the future the cockroach or perhaps ant-colony wikipedia will say something like:

"The sedimentation rate and thickness of Anthropocene-Insectocene clay from three sites suggest rapid extinction, perhaps over a period of less than 10,000 years."

I'd guess that the inner parts of a forest environment, perhaps especially if wet (trapping dust on leaves) would have better air quality, but I'd expect that limited sunlight due to dust would be more of a problem than air quality. Smaller more generalist animals like birds and mammals understandably did better than large herbivores (and their predators) dependent on a single type of food source.

yeah thats probly right, inner parts of forest would be cleaner air wise dust gets trapped on leaves and stuff but sunlight is probly a bigger issue, less of it gets thru all the dust and thats bad for plants and animals alike, especially ones that need lots of it like big herbivores and their predators, theyd struggle to survive on limited sunlight and maybe even worse air quality than outer parts of forest, generalist animals like birds and small mammals would do ok tho, they can eat lots of diff things and dont need as much sunlight

"rephrase in more casual form" ? What was the prompt to generate that ?!

Most bird species also went extinct. Perhaps the survivors, which seem to be small ground dwelling birds had and needed less fine tuned lungs.

I thought the survivors are thought to be small flighted birds which were able to rapidly travel long distances looking for the remaining food and suitable habitat.

https://www.audubon.org/news/how-birds-survived-asteroid-imp...

... though it doesn't get into the air quality directly.

Is it at all possible that we will ever find a frozen dinosaur? If not, why not?

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