On 11/6/2010 6:58 PM, Pat Flannery wrote:

Last time something like that occurred was during the Permian
extinction, known as

_The_ "Great Dying".

including the vast majority of our earliest
ancestors, the mammal-like reptiles.

BTW, ever wonder where the giant reptile-dog critters came from in
"Ghostbusters"?
Meet your ancestor Scutosaurus:
http://megadino.m.e.pic.centerblog.net/tdvbvsrb.jpg
8.5 feet of real vegetarian trouble, with a skeleton so robust that it
would do a rhino proud:
http://blog.everythingdinosaur.co.uk...keletonjpg.jpg
If this smaller version of the same type creature looks a bit familier
also, remember the baby dragons out of the movie "Dragonslayer":
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elginia

Pat