Posted on 07/24/2015 10:12:25 AM PDT by Red Badger
This image shows mammoth vertebrae in ice, Yukon Territory, Canada. Credit: Photo Kieren Mitchell, University of Adelaide
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New research has revealed abrupt warming, that closely resembles the rapid man-made warming occurring today, has repeatedly played a key role in mass extinction events of large animals, the megafauna, in Earth's past.
Using advances in analysing ancient DNA, radiocarbon dating and other geologic records an international team led by researchers from the University of Adelaide and the University of New South Wales (Australia) have revealed that short, rapid warming events, known as interstadials, recorded during the last ice age or Pleistocene (60,000-12,000 years ago) coincided with major extinction events even before the appearance of man.
Published today in Science, the researchers say by contrast, extreme cold periods, such as the last glacial maximum, do not appear to correspond with these extinctions.
"This abrupt warming had a profound impact on climate that caused marked shifts in global rainfall and vegetation patterns," said University of Adelaide lead author and Director of the Australian Centre for Ancient DNA, Professor Alan Cooper.
"Even without the presence of humans we saw mass extinctions. When you add the modern addition of human pressures and fragmenting of the environment to the rapid changes brought by global warming, it raises serious concerns about the future of our environment."
The researchers came to their conclusions after detecting a pattern, 10 years ago, in ancient DNA studies suggesting the rapid disappearance of large species. At first the researchers thought these were related to intense cold snaps.
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Abseiling into Natural Trap Cave, Wyoming -- Professor Alan Cooper descending the 100ft pitch into the cave to excavate ice age megafaunal bones. Credit: Photo by Laura Weyrich, University of Adelaide
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However, as more fossil-DNA became available from museum specimen collections and through improvements in carbon dating and temperature records that showed better resolution through time, they were surprised to find the opposite. It became increasingly clear that rapid warming, not sudden cold snaps, was the cause of the extinctions during the last glacial maximum.
The research helps explain further the sudden disappearance of mammoths and giant sloths that became extinct around 11,000 years ago at the end of the last ice age.
"It is important to recognize that man still played an important role in the disappearance of the major mega fauna species," said fellow author Professor Chris Turney from the University of New South Wales.
"The abrupt warming of the climate caused massive changes to the environment that set the extinction events in motion, but the rise of humans applied the coup de grace to a population that was already under stress."
In addition to the finding, the new statistical methods used to interrogate the datasets (led by Adelaide co-author Professor Corey Bradshaw) and the new data itself has created an extraordinarily precise record of climate change and species movement over the Pleistocene.
This new dataset will allow future researchers a better understanding of this important period than has ever been possible before.
Explore further: Giant moa had climate change figured out
More information: Science, www.sciencemag.org/lookup/doi/10.1126/science.aac4315
Journal reference: Science
Read more at: http://phys.org/news/2015-07-mammoths-abrupt-climate.html#jCp
“It was the SUVs!
Which also became extinct”
They became extinct because Gaia imposed her will upon the racist, microagressing SUVs impinging upon the mammoths.
RE: Mammoths killed by abrupt climate change
Why? How many cars were running then? ?sarc
But...but...Fred Flintstone caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, not the mammoths!
Fred was always wolfing down Brontosaurus-burgers.
Except...one night a brain-addled Fred was singing Italian opera. Betty Rubble heard the loud cacophony & said to Barney, “Some poor mastodon must be stuck in the tar pits!”
Oh, I reckon they killed them alright - But one needs a bit of perspective. One moose (of today) will keep a small family in meat for a winter easily. A mammoth is what, equivalent to 4, maybe 6 moose?
All accounts consider man to be hunter/gatherer at that time, and such people travel light - They would not burden themselves with an overabundance... And would tend, as today, to have a winter camp... leading to a seasonal burden upon the mammoth in a particular and customary area... One mammoth being enough to keep a small band fed through that winter, not to mention any other (easier) prey that might also be on the menu.
There was “extreme” global cooling and global warming periods in the prior ice ages & interglacials.
What was the difference during the last ice age?
Man
And the extinction pattern matches the arrival of man
To the Liberals this hurts their sensibilities and they try and come up with all kinds of crazy ideas as to why the mammoths & others went extinct in order to keep their “Noble Savage” narrative going.
The citizens of Bedrock caused Mammoth extinction? Fred Flintstone should be sued...
That is the new car Obama want the auto companies to build...
I bought my Wife the talking “Baby Sinclair” when the Show was on.
You pull the string and it says all the catch phrases including “not the Mama”. She still has it in the closet.
I wish the Dinosaurs had been on longer, but then I’m still pissed that ABC cancelled the updated V Series before they could come up with a Finale.
Imagine if they never found the One Armed Man on The Fugitive. People would really have been pissed about that.
I just checked, they did 65 Shows over three or four Seasons. I didn’t realize it was on that long.
Too bad it isn’t in Syndication, but they are selling a DVD Boxed set. Might be time to hit Amazon...
was a sudden shift in the complete outer crust of Earth.
Similar to the theory in “2012” the movie.
How do they know it wasn’t man made last time?
I got your wooly mammouth
And that mining he did at Mr. Slate’s quarry damaged the environment.
Could have landed on the Ice.
Bull$#&t. An ice field is more life sustaining than a jungle? Please. Enough of this pseudoscience.
“Paths of the Pole” by Charles Hapgood.
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