March 12, 2014
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, biology, business, Business News, Dark Matter, Dark Matter Dinosaurs, Dinosaurs, Hotels, huffingtonpost, human-rights, Mass extinctions, medicine, mental-health, meteorite strikes, Paleontology, research, Science, Science News, Slideshow, Solar System, Space Telescope Science Institute, technology, Technology News, theoretical physicists, travel, vacation, Weird Science
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A thin disk of dark matter running through the Galaxy might be behind the large meteorite strikes that are thought to be responsible for some of Earth’s mass extinctions, including that of the dinosaurs, two theoretical physicists have proposed.
The model is based on a hypothetical form of dark matter described by the authors and their collaborators last year as a means to solve a separate cosmic conundrum. The existence of such a ‘dark disk’ could be tested soon by astronomical observations.
Mario Livio, an astrophysicist at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, who was not involved in the research, says that the latest idea, which brings together two speculative and very different theories, is “very interesting”, even if the evidence supporting it is far from compelling.
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February 11, 2014
Mohenjo
Science
amazon, biology, business, Business News, Earth, Future Mass Extinction, Giant Rats, Hotels, huffingtonpost, human-rights, mass extinction, Mass extinctions, medicine, mental-health, Oversized Rats, Rats, Rats Earth, Rats Take Over, Rats Take Over Earth, research, Science, Science News, Slideshow, technology, Technology News, travel, vacation, Weird Science
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In the event of a future mass extinction, rats may be the animals best suited to repopulate the world, some scientists say.
And if rats did “take over” after such a wipeout, they’d likely balloon in size, scientists also say.
Mass extinctions have hit the Earth at least five times in geologic history, most recently about 65 million years ago, when scientists think an asteroid hit the planet and wiped out the dinosaurs. Mammals took advantage of the newly available ecological space and ultimately repopulated and dominated the animal kingdom.
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Scientists say that after a mass extinction, oversized rats may repopulate Earth. | Simon Flint via Getty Images
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