Peter Whipple wrote:

> No, he doesn't.  I saw a similar theory, but as I remember, the whale carcasses
> were stepping stones from  one hydrothermal area to another.

Hello!

Hi,

Look, please stop any "just so" stories or theories, there are many documents on
the web, or in
bibliographies on the web, related to the deep sea vent mollusks (molluscs). These
are available to all conch-l-rs, use a search engine. These are documented evidence
of dispersal, genetic determinations etc etc. Please read them, the authors will
appreciate your learning of their hard work and discoveries and all of us will
learn from your new found and documented knowledge.

Read about the "barbecue", the documented/photographed/sampled vent area
repopulation (post barbecue), genetic determinations on the creatures, how and what
they eat, how they reproduce, how they disperse, how vents work, chemical
composition of vent water and surrounding environment, temperature extremes and
thermoclines of vent water and surroundings, how vents last only 10 years on the
average etc etc. I am sure you will find it of great interest.

Why dont we all go off and do some web site searching/reading and then gather up
(on CONCH-L) and exchange/discuss info on this wonderfully newly discovered (well
recently at least) ecosystem and its molluscan fauna.

Please try to read the more documented research websites, books and articles NOT
the sensationalist press junk a la "GORESAT".

One more thing, no fair parroting other's "just so" stories. Some, in authority,
are very guilty of story telling,
"a few dead whales do not a sidewalk make".  Geez, Helmut I invented another one!!

Whales away!

Later,

Emilio Jorge Power

Please visit;
"The Liguus Home Page"
http://pw1.netcom.com/~ejpower/lighompage.html
West Melbourne, Florida  USA