Beam me to Planet Gore !
Posted on 02/24/2012 8:43:35 AM PST by BlackVeil
Researchers have uncovered a direct link between global temperatures and body size, leading them to conclude that future climate change could mean species getting smaller.
A team led by scientists from the University of Florida and the University of Nebraska followed the evolution of the earliest horses about 56 million years ago, and found that as temperatures increased, their body size decreased.
"Horses started out small, about the size of a small dog like a miniature schnauzer," says Jonathan Bloch, associate curator of vertebrate paleontology at the Florida Museum of Natural History.
"What’s surprising is that after they first appeared, they then became even smaller and then dramatically increased in size, and that exactly corresponds to the global warming event, followed by cooling. It had been known that mammals were small during that time and that it was warm, but we hadn’t understood that temperature specifically was driving the evolution of body size."
The earliest-known horse, Sifrhippus, first appeared in North America during the 175,000-year Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and oceans caused average global temperatures to rise 10 to 20 degrees.
The team's traced its evolution from an estimated 12-pound animal to one the size of a domestic cat 130,000 years later. Over the following 45,000 years, it increased in size once again to reach 15 pounds.
"We could immediately see that the shifts in size of horses and temperature were mirror images of each other," says Ross Secord of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln.
The findings raise the obvious questtion of how animals might respond to future rapid climate change.
"We’re seeing about a third of the mammals getting smaller and some of them getting a lot smaller, by as much as half of their original body size," says Secord.
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(Excerpt) Read more at tgdaily.com ...
Does your car also get 50 kilometers to the hogshead?
Another non-problem problem the experts want us to take drastic action over.
Sky is falling too. Heard a boy crying about a wolf this morning too.
Maybe the solution to all this is to appease the gods of the universe and sacrifice all the experts to them. Sure would be a lot quieter place.
My car goes to eleven. /spinal-tap
I thought it was every time a chevy volt catches fire.
Exactly. Also higher CO2 and O2 concentrations back then.
Oh yeah that too!
LLS
And for that reason, paleoclimatologists traditionally call such periods of warmth optimums.
Which came first, the higher temperatures or the higher CO2?
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Thanks BlackVeil. This is the easiest diet I've ever heard of.The earliest-known horse, Sifrhippus, first appeared in North America during the 175,000-year Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum, when increased concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and oceans caused average global temperatures to rise 10 to 20 degrees.That just shows that the earliest known horse-sh!* wasn't the last. |
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Manmade climate change advocates are behaving like cornered rats
Global Warming on Free Republic
This just in “Rising Temperatures Could Make Balls Sweatier”. Sorry couldn’t resist.
Okay..... then why are Eskimos so short?
“Horses started out small, about the size of a small dog like a miniature schnauzer,” Cheaper to feed, easier for short people to ride.
Why are Eskimos so short?
That, also, is because of global warming. Everything is because of global warming.
Get with the programme, Gator.
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