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Over 65 million years North American mammal evolution has tracked with climate change
Brown University ^ | December 26, 2011

Posted on 12/26/2011 1:07:37 PM PST by decimon

Rise and fall of groups of fauna driven by temperature

PROVIDENCE, R.I. -- History often seems to happen in waves – fashion and musical tastes turn over every decade and empires give way to new ones over centuries. A similar pattern characterizes the last 65 million years of natural history in North America, where a novel quantitative analysis has identified six distinct, consecutive waves of mammal species diversity, or "evolutionary faunas." What force of history determined the destiny of these groupings? The numbers say it was typically climate change.

"Although we've always known in a general way that mammals respond to climatic change over time, there has been controversy as to whether this can be demonstrated in a quantitative fashion," said Brown University evolutionary biology Professor Christine Janis. "We show that the rise and fall of these faunas is indeed correlated with climatic change – the rise or fall of global paleotemperatures – and also influenced by other more local perturbations such as immigration events."

Specifically, of the six waves of species diversity that Janis and her Spanish collaborators describe online this week in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, four show statistically significant correlations with major changes in temperature. The two transitions that show a weaker but still apparent correlation with the pattern correspond to periods when mammals from other continents happened to invade in large numbers, said Janis, who is the paper's senior and second author.

(Excerpt) Read more at eurekalert.org ...


TOPICS: History
KEYWORDS: catastrophism; dinosaurs; godsgravesglyphs; paleontology
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1 posted on 12/26/2011 1:07:39 PM PST by decimon
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To: SunkenCiv

Fauna graph ping.


2 posted on 12/26/2011 1:08:20 PM PST by decimon
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To: decimon

Soooooo, climate changes naturally and the world doesn’t end. Who’da thunk it??


3 posted on 12/26/2011 1:10:07 PM PST by Bryanw92 (The solution to fix Congress: Nuke em from orbit. It's the only way to be sure!)
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To: decimon; SunkenCiv; All

Ping to SC


4 posted on 12/26/2011 1:12:53 PM PST by gleeaikin
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To: decimon

LIES! ALL LIES!

Everyone KNOWS that the climate was 100% stable and unchanging until 1910 when the evil Automobile was created as the consumer of the Sludge-of-Satan - oil.

/s


5 posted on 12/26/2011 1:17:05 PM PST by FromTheSidelines ("everything that deceives, also enchants" - Plato)
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To: decimon
"Such perturbations, related to anthropogenic climatic change, are currently challenging the fauna of the world today...."

They had to tag this on in order to receive the Fulbright Grant.

6 posted on 12/26/2011 1:18:18 PM PST by Misterioso
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To: Misterioso
I have noticed these little addenda also, in otherwise serious research papers. It is a craven act of obeisance to a spurious orthodoxy.
7 posted on 12/26/2011 1:24:11 PM PST by hinckley buzzard
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To: hinckley buzzard

Exactly! bttt


8 posted on 12/26/2011 1:33:25 PM PST by Matchett-PI ("One party will generally represent the envied, the other the envious. Guess which ones." ~GagdadBob)
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To: Misterioso
"Such perturbations, related to anthropogenic climatic change, are currently challenging the fauna of the world today...."

They had to tag this on in order to receive the Fulbright Grant.

Something like that. Gotta wonder if they believe it or if they know to play the game.

9 posted on 12/26/2011 1:41:29 PM PST by decimon
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To: Bryanw92
Soooooo, climate changes naturally and the world doesn’t end. Who’da thunk it??

No, this proves that humans have been around (and messing up the world) for 65 million years.

10 posted on 12/26/2011 1:58:42 PM PST by Pollster1 (Natural born citizen of the USA, with the birth certificate to prove it)
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To: decimon

The greatest question IS...

Did the third human on this planet come from two other ones(originals)..?
IF not.. you MUST make up a bodacious TALE to justify that position..


11 posted on 12/26/2011 2:07:03 PM PST by hosepipe (This propaganda has been edited to include some fully orbed hyperbole...)
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To: decimon

Follow the money?


12 posted on 12/26/2011 3:29:28 PM PST by Misterioso
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To: 75thOVI; agrace; aimhigh; Alice in Wonderland; AndrewC; aragorn; aristotleman; Avoiding_Sulla; ...

Thanks decimon and gleeaikin.




13 posted on 12/26/2011 4:10:44 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! May 2013 be even Happier!)
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To: decimon; gleeaikin; StayAt HomeMother; Ernest_at_the_Beach; 1010RD; 21twelve; 24Karet; ...

 GGG managers are SunkenCiv, StayAt HomeMother & Ernest_at_the_Beach
Thanks decimon and gleeaikin.

Climate change? If so, it was caused by impact -- such as the Ries Basin impact 15 million years ago.

To all -- please ping me to other topics which are appropriate for the GGG list.


14 posted on 12/26/2011 4:15:03 PM PST by SunkenCiv (Merry Christmas, Happy New Year! May 2013 be even Happier!)
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To: decimon
Over 65 million years North American mammal evolution has tracked with climate change

Not possible.
Climate change is only about 120 years old.

Al Gore and sundry other fake "scientists" say so.

15 posted on 12/26/2011 4:51:22 PM PST by Publius6961 (My world was lovely, until it was taken over by parasites.)
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To: decimon

Caption: This painting by artist Carl Buell depcits a scene from the late Eocene of North America. The rhino‑like animals in the background are brontotheres. The pony‑sized Hyracodon, a closer relative of living rhinos, in the foreground.


16 posted on 12/26/2011 4:58:03 PM PST by JoeProBono (A closed mouth gathers no feet - Mater tua caligas gerit)
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To: JoeProBono

It’s true. I’ve heard Helen Thomas say that’s what it was like when she was younger. /s


17 posted on 12/26/2011 5:50:10 PM PST by ken in texas
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To: JoeProBono; SunkenCiv
Caption: This painting by artist Carl Buell depcits a scene from the late Eocene of North America.

Late Eocene

Global climate during the Late Eocene was warmer than today. Ice had just begun to form at the South Pole. India was covered by tropical rainforests, and Warm Temperate forests covered much of Austrlia.

Map Legend here



Wikipedia-Eocene

The Eocene Epoch contained a wide variety of different climate conditions that includes the warmest climate in the Cenozoic Era and ends in an icehouse climate. The evolution of the Eocene climate began with warming after the end of the Palaeocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) at 56 million years ago to a maximum during the Eocene Optimum at around 49 million years ago. During this period of time, little to no ice was present on Earth with a smaller difference in temperature from the equator to the poles. Following the maximum, was a descent into an icehouse climate from the Eocene Optimum to the Eocene-Oligocene transition at 34 million years ago. During this decrease ice began to reappear at the poles, and the Eocene-Oligocene transition is the period of time where the Antarctic ice sheet began to rapidly expand.


I'm not going to obsesses over a degree or two increase during the next century, whether or not it is man made, when we're still about 5C below median or "baseline"...and 12-ish below past maximums...and only 2 or 3C above past minimums.
18 posted on 12/26/2011 8:29:57 PM PST by ApplegateRanch (Islam: A Satanically Transmitted Disease spread by unprotected intimate contact with the Koranus)
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To: hinckley buzzard

“It is a craven act of obeisance to a spurious orthodoxy.”

Pure poetry.


19 posted on 12/26/2011 10:45:01 PM PST by Explorer89 (And now, let the wild rumpus start!!)
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To: ApplegateRanch

Terrific and very useful graphics. Thanks for posting.


20 posted on 12/27/2011 5:24:17 AM PST by 1010RD (First, Do No Harm)
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