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crater. Further, not only do ammonites, plants, and forams offer cor-
roborative evidence that impact led to extinction, so do the
dinosaurs. Keeping in mind'that theories are not proven, only dis-
proven, I believe that it is fair to say that the core of the Alvarez
theory—that impact occurred and that it caused the great K-T mass
extinction—has been corroborated. It has met many tests and failed
none.
Charles Officer and Jake Page do not agree. On the contrary, in
their 1996 topic, they write that the theory has "collapsed under the
weight of accumulated geologic and other evidence." 6 7 In the final
chapter of The Great Dinosaur Extinction Controversy, they cite the
Alvarez theory as an example of "degenerative science," comparable
in its failure to Marxism. By misleading us into searching the heav-
ens for incoming meteorites, the authors claim, when instead we
should be solving current environmental problems right here on
earth, the theory is downright dangerous. But other geologists have
moved in the opposite direction: They are fascinated by the possi-
bility that the Chicxulub impact was not the only one to cause a
mass extinction.
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