Posted on 10/19/2012 9:11:14 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Boffins have discovered that "lethally hot" ocean temperatures kept the Earth devoid of life for millions of years after the mass extinction that occurred 250 million years ago.
The global wipeout that ended the Permian era, before dinosaurs, wiped out nearly all of the world's species. Mass extinctions like these in Earth's history are usually followed by a "dead zone", a period of tens of thousands of years before new species crop up. But the early Triassic dead zone lasted millions of years, not thousands.
Boffins now reckon that the extra-long five million year dead zone was caused by screaming hot ocean temperatures in the tropics, making the land's forecast a balmy 50° to 60°C and 40°C at the sea-surface.
Global warming has long been linked to the end-Permian mass extinction, but this study is the first to show extreme temperatures kept life from re-starting in Equatorial latitudes for millions of years," said study lead author Yadong Sun, a researcher at the University of Leeds.
In the dead zone, the tropics would have been very wet but with almost nothing growing, no forest, only shrubs and ferns, no fish or marine reptiles, just shellfish and virtually no land animals. Only the polar region would have offered any refuge from the blistering heat.
Before this study, scientists thought that the sea surface couldn't get any hotter than 30°C and certainly not the 40°C level at which marine life dies and photosynthesis stops.
Sun and his team figured it out by collecting data from 15,000 ancient teeth. The conodonts, tiny teeth from extinct eel-like fishes, were pulled from two tonnes of rock in South China. They form a skeleton using oxygen, and the oxygen isotopes are temperature-controlled. By examining the conodonts, the researchers were able to see how hot it was millions of years ago.
Nobody has ever dared say that past climates attained these levels of heat. Hopefully future global warming wont get anywhere near temperatures of 250 million years ago, but if it does we have shown that it may take millions of years to recover," Professor Paul Wignall of Leeds Uni said.
The study was published in Science.
I know one thing for certain.
Once we are all dead, there will not be a single complaint.
ROFL
Nah; wrong conclusion. The Rift Valley Game & Fish Commission wildlife biologists drained the lake to eradicate undesirable species, then restocked it with 300 species of cichlids that were endangered elsewhere. *<];-')
Grab both ankles...
;’)
I have come to the conclusion that many of those who think that they believe in the theory of evolution are actually addicted to fantasy. They love fabricating “what ifs” and “it could have beens”, creating grand, grand scenarios, almost as if, in their own minds, they become a creator themselves. They don’t need cognisant logic, all they need is a slim thread of supposed evidence, and off they go, conjuring up grand illusions of what might have happened millions and millions of years ago, but we know never did. Their minds are basically trapped, held hostage by what appears to be an addiction that gives them some sort of weird and unnatural high.
Must be.
Hope you’re doing ok. ;)
I recently cut-down a tree in my yard that was looking really skanky. Looking at the rings on the stump, you could clearly see about 25 years or regular, healthy growth, but the last five rings were blurred, irregular, and frankly sick looking. Matched the tree’s latest appearance.
Someone needs to check Al Gore’s teeth.
Sounds sketchy. This is a study based on the teeth of an “eel-like” creature that lived when no fish lived?
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Global Warming on Free Republic
Imagine that.
I just can’t imagine what that does to the evolutionists position on the amount of mutations necessary over the amount of time now left to produce life.
/s
Does that fall under *punctuated equilibrium*?
They aren’t “science”, they’re conjecture.
As you said, “speculative”.
No control, no repeatability, no falsifying conditions provided, etc.
Maybe “Punctured Equivocation”. Gould, the worm man, found a pogo stick approach to evolution made him the bad boy of paleontology and that appears to have been a goal for him.
Still his “Wonderful Life” on the Burgess Shale is an interesting book.
And then stucco was invented and a metropolis called Phoenix rose from the caliche and cactus, a fortress where mankind could huddle around the refrigeration in chilly darkness.
Thanks for the ping!
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