“Life is fragile, susceptible to reductions in population from ice ages and other forms of environmental change, infections, predation, competition from other species and for limited resources, and interactions among these forces,” says Dr. Thaler. Adds Dr. Thaler, “The similar sequence variation in many species suggests that all of animal life experiences pulses of growth and stasis or near extinction on similar time scales.”
“Scholars have previously argued that 99% of all animal species that ever lived are now extinct. Our work suggests that most species of animals alive today are like humans, descendants of ancestors who emerged from small populations possibly with near-extinction events within the last few hundred thousand years.”
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So when the Global Warming scammers start whining about extinctions we can shove this in their faces.
The idea that most species alive today evolved relatively recently should not be surprising at all. Just look at the climate pattern: Most everything (life) has been repeatedly pruned back by repeated bouts of truly harsh climate (extensive periods of glaciation and drought).
I DO so wish they would make up their minds!!
Ice ages cause a rather dramatic environmental impact on species. Life of today is composed of those species which somehow managed to survive the last Ice Age.