A new paper that argues that ecosystem devestation in the Carboniferous provided conditions that led to increased diversity in amniotes and basically set the stage for the rise of archosaurs in the Mesozoic.
From Science Daily article: "Global warming devastated tropical rainforests 300 million years ago. Now scientists report the unexpected discovery that this event triggered an evolutionary burst among reptiles -- and inadvertently paved the way for the rise of dinosaurs, 100 million years later". Read more here.
Sahney, S., Benton, M. J., and H. J. Falcon-Lang. 2010. Rainforest collapse triggered Carboniferous tetrapod diversification in Euramerica. Geology 38: 1079-1082. DOI: 10.1130/G31182.1
Abstract - Abrupt collapse of the tropical rainforest biome (Coal Forests) drove rapid diversification of Carboniferous tetrapods (amphibians and reptiles) in Euramerica. This finding is based on analysis of global and alpha diversity databases in a precise geologic context. From Visean to Moscovian time, both diversity measures steadily increased, but following rainforest collapse in earliest Kasimovian time (ca. 305 Ma), tetrapod extinction rate peaked, alpha diversity imploded, and endemism developed for the first time. Analysis of ecological diversity shows that rainforest collapse was also accompanied by acquisition of new feeding strategies (predators, herbivores), consistent with tetrapod adaptation to the effects of habitat fragmentation and resource restriction. Effects on amphibians were particularly devastating, while amniotes (‘reptiles’) fared better, being ecologically adapted to the drier conditions that followed. Our results demonstrate, for the first time, that Coal Forest fragmentation influenced profoundly the ecology and evolution of terrestrial fauna in tropical Euramerica, and illustrate the tight coupling that existed between vegetation, climate, and trophic webs.
- Home
- Angry by Choice
- Catalogue of Organisms
- Chinleana
- Doc Madhattan
- Games with Words
- Genomics, Medicine, and Pseudoscience
- History of Geology
- Moss Plants and More
- Pleiotropy
- Plektix
- RRResearch
- Skeptic Wonder
- The Culture of Chemistry
- The Curious Wavefunction
- The Phytophactor
- The View from a Microbiologist
- Variety of Life

Field of Science
-
-
-
-
-
-
A New Placodont from the Late Triassic of China4 weeks ago in Chinleana
-
-
What I Read (2018)1 month ago in Angry by Choice
-
-
-
-
-
Bryophyte Herbarium Survey1 year ago in Moss Plants and More
-
-
Harnessing innate immunity to cure HIV2 years ago in Rule of 6ix
-
WE MOVED!2 years ago in Games with Words
-
-
-
-
post doc job opportunity on ribosome biochemistry!4 years ago in Protein Evolution and Other Musings
-
Growing the kidney: re-blogged from Science Bitez4 years ago in The View from a Microbiologist
-
Blogging Microbes- Communicating Microbiology to Netizens4 years ago in Memoirs of a Defective Brain
-
-
-
The Lure of the Obscure? Guest Post by Frank Stahl6 years ago in Sex, Genes & Evolution
-
-
Lab Rat Moving House7 years ago in Life of a Lab Rat
-
Goodbye FoS, thanks for all the laughs7 years ago in Disease Prone
-
-
Slideshow of NASA's Stardust-NExT Mission Comet Tempel 1 Flyby8 years ago in The Large Picture Blog
-
in The Biology Files

Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment
Markup Key:
- <b>bold</b> = bold
- <i>italic</i> = italic
- <a href="http://www.fieldofscience.com/">FoS</a> = FoS