Posted on 05/01/2007 3:52:48 PM PDT by blam
Adapt, Move or Die: Prehistoric Climate Change
by Joe Palca
The skeleton of a prehistoric elephant found on a beach in England raises questions about ancient changes in global climate. Scientists estimate that the elephant was 10 tons — twice the size of today's African elephants. Sam Brown, Norfolk Museums and Archaeology Service
The prehistoric elephant bones were found protruding from the cliffs at West Runton after a winter storm. Geologists analyze the layers of sediment in the cliffs for clues about the ancient climate.
“We're entering a new phase, and it certainly seems to me that this is now not a natural cycle, but something that is being produced by the action of one species — us.” Chris Stringer, Paleontologist, Natural History Museum
Morning Edition, May 1, 2007 · Today, the climate in Britain is pleasant. But every hundred thousand years or so, it goes from pleasant to abominable — part of a natural cycle that is caused by the way the earth tilts and wobbles as it orbits the sun.
The discovery of a skeleton of an enormous, prehistoric elephant on the coast of England is an example of this ancient cycle of warm and cold. The bones of the 10-ton elephant were found protruding from seashore cliffs after a winter storm.
Under an Ice Sheet
Anthony Stuart, a geologist with the University College London, says that if you flew over Britain when it was under an ice sheet, it would look like Greenland or the Antarctic — covered by ice two or three miles thick.
Under an ice sheet, life grinds to a halt. Plants, animals and people have three basic choices during these chilly times: find a way to adapt to living on a block of ice, move out of the way, or die. Eventually, the ice retreats, and life gets easier.
"Once the ice sheets start to roll back… they go back fairly quickly," says archaeologist Clive Gamble. "There's even a phrase for it: instant deglacierization."
By "instant," Gamble means a geologic instant — centuries, or more likely, a millennia or two. It is only after the region warms up that plants, animals and people can return.
England's Elephants
At the seaside town of West Runton in Britain, there is evidence of this ancient climate change. The beach at West Runton is a narrow strip of sand, with the North Sea on the left and a 40-foot cliff face on the right.
On the cliff are broad layers of various colored sediments. Each layer tells a dramatically different story: Boulder clay is evidence of an ancient ice sheet. A black bed at the base of the cliff is more organic — packed with finely-shredded plant material and bits of wool and seed. The black bed was laid down about 700,000 years ago, when Britain was reasonably warm.
Several years ago, the cliffs at West Runton bore yet a further surprise: after a winter storm some local naturalists found several elephant bones protruding from the sediment.
"We then did a rescue dig," says geologist Anthony Stuart, "and we recovered vertebrae from the backbone, the lower jaw, and almost all of the rest of the skeleton, including the skull and the tusks."
Scientists estimate that the elephant weighed 10 tons: nearly twice the weight of a modern African elephant. The animals, which are the largest species of elephant to have ever lived, once roamed throughout England.
Slicing into Sediment
Forty miles to the south of West Runton in the town of Sahem Toney, scientists from Britain's top universities are excavating a large pit near the ninth tee of the Richmond Park Golf Club. They are trying to figure out how small changes in climate — a degree or two like we are experiencing now — impact the Earth.
Nigel Larkin of the Norfolk Museum and Archeology Service is taking part in the excavation. In his shovel he holds a slice of sediment that looks like a piece of layer cake. Each layer is only a few inches thick. Instead of seeing changes on a 100,000-year scale, he can see changes in the sediment that took place in just a few thousands of years.
By studying the layers of sediment, Larkin and his colleagues are trying to understand the gradations in climate that Britain has experienced. They have already discovered that the climate near Sahem Toney was once less English countryside, and more Mediterranean beach resort — elephants and all.
Today, we associate elephants with warm, tropical parts of the world. But Anthony Stuart says that if you look at things from a geological perspective, the question really is: Why aren't there any elephants running around North America or Europe today?
From our human perspective, it is hard to comprehend how big a role climate plays in life: We don't see elephants in Britain now, so we assume they've never been there. But we do see humans, and we assume we have always been here.
In fact, humans only get our turn on Earth's stage when the climate lets us. When the climate gets tough, we exit.
Adapt, Move or Die
Chris Stringer is a paleontologist at London's Natural History Museum. Stringer runs a project that studies how climate and human migration interact. His office is littered with bones and skulls of the animals and humans whose scenes have ended.
"Each time it was warm," Stringer says, "Britain was potentially a good place for people to be. Each time it was cold, it was a bad place for people. And at the peaks of these cold stages… people probably disappeared from Britain completely."
Stringer says basically when the climate went bad, people had those three choices: adapt, move or die. It is a pattern of natural change that has been going on for hundreds of thousands of years.
"Now we're getting something that's not part of the cycle of natural change," Stringer says. "So we're entering a new phase, and it certainly seems to me that this is now not a natural cycle, but something that is being produced by the action of one species — us."
Maybe humans have reached a point where we'll be able to adapt to whatever climate changes lie ahead… maybe.
Guaranteed to get your name into print.
GGG Ping.
Another scientist speaking as an expert, leaping to radical conclusions about a field he is not trained in.
Looks like the guy is covering his butt. He talks about Britain going through many changes in climate and then makes sure to point out he isn’t a Global Warming Denier. lol
Scientist or no scientist........everyone should look at the facts. I’m not an Al Gore catastrophist....but if you want to read some real interesting research....do a google search on “NASA” & “earth shift” If you further read about the accelerated rate of movement of the earth’s magnetic North pole, the increase in the strength and frequency of the sun’s CME’s during this 11 year polarity reversal vs. previous polarity reversals, the decrease in the strength of the earth’s magnetic field.....and then take a look at the facts which Mr. Gore is mis-interpreting to cry “The sky is falling.” And one might think that just maybe Emanual Velikovsky was correct when he wrote “Ages in Chaos.”
Mastodons? Mammoths?
Excellent!
If these words were uttered by an engineer, who must be licensed to protect public safety, his license would be revoked for incompetence.
No supporting science, no explanation, no testing of hypotheses, no confirmation of pragmatic testing --- nothing other than feelings.
The pole shift is inevitable and can not be stopped. Plus it is a purely natural cycle. But the GW alarmists don’t want to hear that: they just want to blame people, reduce us to savages and kill off the population. It will be an interesting few decades, centuries(?) as the poles shift and out navigation, electronics etc have to adjust to the change. But we can do it.
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Wait for the punchline!
http://www.museums.norfolk.gov.uk/default.asp?Document=400.500.050x4
West Runton Elephant
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Frequently Asked Questions:
How do we know it was a “he”?
Because of the size and shape of the hip bones. Female elephants have a different shaped pelvis for giving birth to young elephants.
How tall was he?
About four metres high at the shoulder, much taller than modern elephants.
How much did he weigh?
About ten tons, twice the weight of a male African elephant.
How old are the fossils?
About 600,000 – 700,000 years old.
How old was the elephant when he died?
We know from the wear on his teeth that he was “in his prime” – in his forties, and would normally have lived to his sixties.
Was it a mammoth or an elephant?
Technically he is a very early mammoth, which is a type of elephant. It was the descendants of this species that became what we call the “woolly mammoths” that lived in the colder conditions of the ice ages and were a lot smaller.
How did the West Runton Elephant get to England, did he have to
swim? No, Britain was not an island at that time. What is now the North Sea was a valley full of plants and animals.
What animals hunted the elephant?
None, they are far too big to be hunted - except by humans.
What other animals were around at the time?
Spotted hyaenas, giant beaver, extinct big cats, extinct species of rhino, extinct giant deer and other deer.
Why don’t we have elephants in England now?
Because of a combination of factors: Successive ice ages stressed our native animals to such an extent that many became extinct naturally, but hunting by early humans may also account for their demise. After the last ice age sea levels rose, creating the North Sea which then prevented land animals from re-colonising Britain.
What did he eat?
Grass, herbaceous shrubs and other vegetation in an open forest and grassland environment.
Back then was it colder or warmer than today?
We know from the small mammals and the pollen from the plants that at the time the West Runton Elephant lived the climate was exactly the same as today. Although the list of animals living with the elephant sounds exotic, this is because we have lost these species due to hunting and the effects of the relatively recent ice ages, not because the climate was any different back then.
Still the same three choices, and if we don't throw away the opportunity in favor of going back to mud huts and animal skins, we might even get a toehold on other planets as well.
(I should have hit the preview..)
How does Mr. Stringer know for certain that what we are in is NOT part of a cycle of natural change?
“How does Mr. Stringer know for certain that what we are in is NOT part of a cycle of natural change?”
Because his Thought Boss told him so.
Maybe humans have reached a point where we've already adapted to many climate change cycles... maybe.
Humans are only part of the natural environment when it suits the researcher (the “Noble Savage” crapola). Otherwise they are evil. Well except the ivory tower humans—they are good.
the climate was exactly the same as todayLOL!
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