Mitch Giliano 006
Dinosaur in the Haystack
SJ Gould on-line library
Dr. Gould talks about how science revolves around theories and how theories can change during any time in our research or the information we find combines with our previous theory. But how scientists today do not question theories anymore they just get in a daily habit. Dr. Gould also talks about how we don’t have all the answers today and theories can still change or be altered. To prove this Dr. Gould goes on to talk about the extinction of all the animals. He explains how Darwin rejected the theory that all of the animals died gradually instead Darwin believe in the extreme view of mass extinction. Dr. Gould goes on to tell us how this is false and that it is clear that the animals died gradually. But that Darwin’s mass extinction prevailed as we see in data records. Dr. Gould goes on to say this is because not every animal that lived fossilized in the ground in fact only small amount actually fossilized. Because of this the data that Darwin had collected looked as if the animals had died gradually. Dr. Gould also mentions Luis Alvarez’s theory but how many of Dr. Gould’s colleagues did not agree with it. But Doctor Gould pushes to look outside of the box and comes up with a new idea how we look at this. The haystack example that he says brings a good point of how we can understand the extinction of dinosaurs and look for fossils. He makes a point saying how scientists get stuck in a rhythm and look at the same place until you are dead. Dr. Gould also mentions that being a scientist does not mean that you sit in a lab all day but you get out there and do field work to try and find answers. He also says that there are many theories out there that a scientist can use to their advantage because no one knows for sure how the animals died and the best way to find out is to go out and look for the answer. He says there are many ways that the animals could have died. They could have all been killed by a mass extinction, or they could have died off gradually, or Dr. Gould even says that an extra terrestrial life form could have come and killed all the animals. But there is still much more complexity to it that we still have not found out and many unanswered questions.