General Chat

A rare (for me) hour spent watching Prof. Alice Roberts (OK, so that was the reason I watched it) on BBC 2 in the programme about the dinosaur extinction through an asteroid impact.

We all have a common ancestor from a little shrew like mammal that managed to survive once the competition from the dinosaurs was eliminated. If not for that asteroid we wouldn't be here.

I wonder if anyone has managed to get back that far? It's only 65 million years or so :)

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D
Come on, update yourself, aren't we all related to Lucy (Ethiopia, 3.2 million years ago)

Mind you, I'd rather be related to a shrew than some others :-D :-D

:-D :-D

Yes, but Lucys ancestor was a shrew :) Come to think of it, I know a few cases where there is a family resemblance....

D'oh! Of course.
So we are all related to a Shrew that developed into some sort of hominid (Australopithecus)
I'd love to know about the bits in between :-D


*may spend more time than is healthy on the PC*

And there was I, thinking cockroaches were the great survivors.

The Taming of the Shrew - Shakespeare beat you to it, Eldrick. ;-)

And how did the shrew thing come about then?

Not a clue, Sharron. I did not watch the programme but Elrick did so he will be able to tell you.

It was there all the time - waiting in the wings :-)

I watched the Horizon program about the Yucatan meteor. Entertaining and a good chance for Alice Roberts to clock up her air miles. The science has been published a while back but afaik first time on tv.

The location of a mega tsunami death field contemperaneous with the astroid was big news and tells us a lot about fauna at that time. Including shrews.

At that time mammals had not developed the nipple the young got mllk from special sweat glands. The advancement of care of the young is what made mammals top shrew .. the dinos were on the way out and the mammals on the up a long time before the asteroid. They shrews kep eating the dino eggs.

The time scales are immense. As an example the ancestor of the blue whale was a bear like creature living on land in Pakistan 4 million years ago long after the asteroid. The only land descendent extant is the hippo.

We know that there were hominids living more than two million years ago in east Africa. There were at least three "break outs" from Africa into Asia from whom all homo sapiens are descended.

Some people do not like the idea the h.s. is an animal, a mammal, a vertebrate, with shared ancestry and dna with all the others. Maybe Dermot can enlighten us on the Vatican point if view and D Trump the evangelical version. Nevertheless the science is undeniable.

I am certain that Eldrick's far ancestor was a handsome animal about the size of a badger with the same intelligence and bravery a few rungs and millions of years on from the shrews.

I'm sure the programme will be repeated soon. :-D

Prob not they have this app called iPlayer give it a try

No thanks, much rather wait - there's more to life than TV.

it was actually repeated this morning - but I don't watch TV in the day.

Was there a country named Pakistan four million years ago? :-S

a shrew!!! reminiscent of my mother in law!!!

Ann :-D :-D :-D :-D

Suppose Allan you were a paleontologist and you needed a plane ticket for the whale ancestry location would you ask Mrs Flintstone for a ticket to Pakistan or Gondwana land? Absurd attempt at a joke. Maybe due to yr illness.

What did Horace say, Winnie?

:-D :-D :-D :-D :-D :-D

I had no idea Allan was ill - hope it's nothing serious Allan cos I luvs ya?!!!!