GSA Today Archive |
GSA Today, v. 9, no. 9, September 1999
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Table of Contents
Science Article: (View Abstract)
Does Climatic Change Drive Mammalian Evolution?
by Donald R. Prothero
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In Memoriam |
2 |
Dialogue |
3 |
Tributes Honor Halbouty for 90th Birthday |
7 |
Earth Science Week |
8 |
Notice of Council Meeting |
9 |
Washington Report Meet Charles Groat, Part 2 |
10 |
GSA Section Meetings |
11 |
GSA Division News |
12 |
Book Reviews |
13 |
GSA Names New Congressional Science Fellow |
15 |
1999 Annual Meeting Denver: Pardee Keynote Symposia |
16 |
Graduate School Information Forum |
17 |
Technical Session Program Calendar |
18 |
Short Courses |
25 |
2000 South-Central Section Meeting |
27 |
2000 Northeastern Section Meeting |
28 |
2000 Southeastern Section Meeting |
29 |
GSAF Update |
30 |
GSA's 1999 Research Grant Awards |
32 |
Bulletin and Geology
Contents |
35 |
Calendar |
36 |
Classifieds |
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Does Climatic Change Drive Mammalian Evolution?
Donald R. Prothero, Department
of Geology, Occidental College, Los Angeles, CA 90041
ABSTRACT
Neo-Darwinian evolutionary theory argues that species and faunas are exquisitely
adapted to their environment and should respond when their habitat changes. To
test this hypothesis, the mammalian response to four of the largest climatic events
of the Cenozoic (as documented by the marine record, oxygen isotopes, land plants,
and other climatically sensitive organisms) are examined. These events occurred
during the global cooling at the end of the middle Eocene (37 Ma), the cooling
and drying event in the earliest Oligocene (33 Ma), the spread of C4 grasslands
in the late Miocene (7 Ma), and the rapid climatic fluctuations of the Pliocene-Pleistocene
(2.5 Ma to present). In each case, there is relatively little short-term response
of the mammalian fauna. Typically, there is greater turnover millions of years
before and after the time of climatic change than during the climatic event itself.
This pattern suggests that the climatic control on mammalian evolution is much
more complex than previously supposed, or that intrinsic biotic controls may be
more important than extrinsic environmental controls.
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