(Now, how many climate changes have we had just in the last 65 Million years??)
Posted on 06/11/2016 5:42:04 PM PDT by JimSEA
The number of species that can exist on Earth depends on how the environment changes, according to new research led by the University of Southampton.
By analysing the fossil record of microscopic aquatic creatures called planktonic foraminifera, whose fossil remains now resemble miniaturised popcorn and date back millions of years, the research provided the first statistical evidence that environmental changes put a cap on species richness.
Dr Ezard added: "We used mathematical models to reveal how environmental changes influence both the rate of diversification among species and how many species can co-exist at once. Our results suggest that the world is full of species, but that the precise fullness varies through time as environmental changes alter the outcome of competition among species."
(Excerpt) Read more at sciencedaily.com ...
(Now, how many climate changes have we had just in the last 65 Million years??)
they had popcorn a gabillion years ago? what’s old is new again. small world
In other news, water is wet.
Duh...you have to be a scientist to discover such amazing facts?
Do they have fossil theaters with fossilized sticky floors nearby?
YES! And, they have the bones of the theater patrons who became stuck to the floors!
An old farmer went to town to see a movie. He put his money down and the cashier said, “Sir. Is that a rooster on your shoulder?”
“Yeah.” he replied. “I take ‘Red’ here with me everwhere I go.”
She told him they didn’t allow animals in the theater.
He left the line, walked around a corner and stuffed Red in his overalls, then returned.
He sat down in the theater next to two old ladies. It was dark and he unbuttoned his fly so that Red could watch the movie.
The old lady sitting right next to him turned to her sister and whispered, “Phyllis, I think we’re sitting next to a pervert! He just got his ‘thing’ out!”
Her sister whispered back, “Darla, we’re old enough that, you know, we’ve seen just about everything. Don’t panic.”
And Phyllis said, “Sure, yeah. But this one is eating my popcorn.”
I learned this in college back in the 60’s. Loved them Globergerina thingies. And Graptolites were cool - looked like microscopic saw blades.
My work as a Student Assistant was to find Conodonts (looked like cusp teeth, either a single tooth cusp or multi-teeth on one basal cusp),in limestone sludge (acetic acid does wanders to limestone rocks).
Each environment produced a different colored species of conodont. If I remember correctly, the Upper Cincinatti Formation produced beautiful amber colored Conodonts, while the Chambersburg, Pa. Ordovician produced all asphalt black species except for one pure crystalline one I found amongst them.
In the world of geology and paleontology, you are want you eat or swim in.
Some comments on your charts. Note the sharp drop around 34 million years ago at the beginning of the Oligocene. That was caused by among others the Chesapeake Meteor strike, about 60+ miles in diameter running from Norfolk up into the Delmarva Peninsula. Popogai (sp?) crater in Russia also about the same age and size, and the nine mile diameter crater of that age off Toms River, NJ. Regarding the sudden shift about 3 million years ago, I believe that is when North and South America were joined, thus disrupting ocean currents, and also leading northern species to move south and kill of some major species there. Does anyone have a clue about the shift from the 41 kyr cycle to the 100 kyr cycle?
Can't speak for other parts of the country, but here in Pennsylvania, our climate changes significantly almost every day.
For example, just today it will change by 25 degrees!
Yes, from 55 degrees F to 80!
And tomorrow the same.
And you say all this climate warming is caused by SUVs and coal?
Isn't that amazing...
;-)
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