Dino Wars Update

Prof Note:

AS YOU UNDOUBTEDLY RECALL FROM OUR Febraary 1990 cover story, Dartmouth's "Chuck & Chuck Dino Squad" —consisting of Earth Sciences Professor Charles L. Drake and Research Professor Charles B. Officer were battling with scientists at Berkeley over how the dinosaurs became extinct. Dartmouth said volcanoes; Berkeley said asteroids. Dartmouth said the big lizards died gradually; Berkeley said they were snuffed out in a geological instant.

When last we left them, the two competing research teams were chipping away at the stone of Italy's Appenine Mountains, looking for a telltale layer of iridium in the rock that would help determine whether volcanoes were the smoking gun. A referee from the University of Miami supervised the collection, and results were to have been announced in the spring.

But instead, a third contestant entered the contest as a surprise pinch-hitter for the Dartmouth team. A French research group from the Centre National des Recherches Scientifiques discovered iridium patterns that point to "volcanic activity," according to Officer.

The jury is still way out, but, at least according to the Dartmouth side, the score stands as follows: Dartmouth Denators 1, Berkeley Comets 0.