"A BOOM in Natural History"

[Thomas Yancey]

There is a disturbing subtext here of geological illiteracy on the part of
a high-ranking museum official. The Gulf of Mexico formed long before the
end-Cretaceous impact event and a natural history museum should not be
party to such fantasy interpretations. The willingness to sacrifice sound
science for the sake of promoting psuedo-scientific pop science story
telling may be a contributing factor for the decline in support of natural
sciences.

T. Yancey


>Many museums were in an expansion phase according to the following article
>written ca. Feb 2001 (pre-Enron (12/01) and pre-9/11/01) by Robert R.
>Townsend, Expansion Director for the Dallas Museum of Natural History. Mike
>Quinn, New Braunfels, TX
>
>-------------------------
>
>A BOOM in Natural History
>
>Most scientists believe our universe began with a Big BOOM (Bang?) 4.5
>billion years ago!  And our world has been expanding ever since.
>
>What do you think the dinosaurs thought when they heard asteroids BOOMing
>into the earth 65 million years ago, creating the Gulf of Mexico, the
>Yucatan peninsula and abruptly ending their two-millennium dominance of the
>planet?  What message do you think the BOOM of the cannons and muskets of
>horseback-riding European explorers sent to the Pre-Columbian civilizations
>of the Americas?
snip

Thomas E. Yancey
Dept. Geology & Geophysics, Texas A&M University
College Station, Texas 77843-3115
ph: 979-845-0643
tyancey at tamu.edu