[meteorite-list] Fur Flies As Dinosaur Experts Feud

From: Ron Baalke <baalke_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Thu Apr 22 10:29:52 2004
Message-ID: <200309080537.WAA16368_at_zagami.jpl.nasa.gov>

http://www.taipeitimes.com/News/world/archives/2003/09/08/2003067003

Fur flies as dinosaur experts feud

BONES TO PICK: The row about what wiped out the dinosaurs has sparked
allegations of deception and unethical behavior in scientific circles

BY ROBIN MCKIETHE OBSERVER
Tapei Times
September 8, 2003

The world's biggest bang wiped out the dinosaurs in a cataclysm that swathed
our planet in choking dust -- or at least that is what many paleontologists
claim. Others say dinosaurs died out gradually as Earth's climate and geology
changed.

It sounds a typical academic dispute -- but last week it erupted into open
warfare. Allegations have been made of deceit and unethical behavior. One
scientist is even alleged to have held back inconvenient evidence.

"This affair has become an object lesson on how partisan and unethical the
whole dinosaur controversy has become," said Norman MacLeod, keeper of
paleontology at London's Natural History Museum.

"Young scientists are now refusing to get involved in this field because no
matter what they say it will offend someone and damage their careers. It's
like the nature-nurture debate. No matter what you say, someone will hate
you for it."

The furore focuses on a massive drilling project set up to study the Chicxulub
crater in Yucatan. Buried under half a mile of rock, the crater was created
65 million years ago when Earth was hit by a meteorite 16km in diameter. The
blast would have blotted out the sun for decades, or even centuries, many
researchers claim. Given that around this time the dinosaurs became extinct,
many scientists made a direct link. Denied sunlight and food, most of the
world's animals would have starved, and choked, to death.

But others disagree. Volcanoes, global warming or sea level changes were
responsible, they say -- pointing to evidence that most dinosaurs became
extinct before the explosion and to the fact that many large animals such as
alligators survived this alleged catastrophe. Things weren't that bad, they
say.

In a bid to resolve the dispute, a US$3 million project was launched in
Yucatan two years ago. Researchers drilled a pipe into the Earth's crust to
bring back samples of the meteor and crater wall. By studying what happened
just before and just after the meteorite impact, scientists would glean
critical insights, it was argued. For example, it would show if all life was
extinguished in the millennia that followed the impact.

In 2002 the first samples were brought up. To the disgust of Mexican
geologists, and to many scientists who doubted the Big Blast theory, these
were entrusted to Jan Smit, a geologist at the Free University of Amsterdam
and a leading supporter of the meteorite hypothesis. Promising to cut up the
samples and distribute them to project scientists, Smit left with the
precious Chicxulub remains. A year later, many scientists were still
seeking the promised samples.

"We were dismayed," geochemist Erika Elswick of Indiana University in
Bloomington states in the current issue of Nature. "There was no
explanation given, no apology."

Eventually some samples were sent out, but most were too small for experiments.
Dismay turned to fury. Researcher Gerta Keller, of Princeton University,
pressed Smit and at last got a good set of samples. At the European Union of
Geosciences conference in Nice, she presented her results, which were a
bombshell.

Her research, Keller claimed, clearly showed that marine plankton, far from
being killed off by debris blotting out the sun, thrived for hundreds of
thousands of years after the crater was created. The meteor that struck at
Chicxulub was not responsible for mass extinctions, she concluded.

Nor is Keller reticent in her interpretation of Smit's behavior.

"He tried to postpone our results so that he could remain unchallenged at
that meeting," she states in Nature.

Smit dismisses the allegation as "ridiculous." He blames the delays on his
busy schedule and poor communications by those running the project. He also
claims Keller misidentified some fossils in her samples.

The row is far from over. Project scientists are preparing papers containing
results of studies of the samples they obtained from Smit and these will be
published in a special issue of Meteoritics and Planetary Science next year.
Few doubt it will resolve the issue. As MacLeod says: "It's no longer about
science. It's about reputations."
Received on Mon 08 Sep 2003 01:37:26 AM PDT