Published in the journal Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, this study highlights the integration of the entire African continent into biodiversity during the Plio-Pleistocene, a period in the history of the Earth covering about 5 million years ago and covering the last years of ice. 20,000 years ago.The study finds that the evolution of nature during that time glasses change in the earth’s orbit and in relation to the sun, as foretold by a natural phenomenon known as the Milankovic cycles. These orbits place our planet in various sizes of sunlight, leading to well-documented, orbiting effects on Earth’s atmosphere in various waves.
Researchers’ Comments
Researchers have observed a long-term trend toward increasing biodiversity throughout Africa due to the variability of global ice capacity and sea temperature. The results did not, however, reveal a significant correlation between biodiversity and levels of origin or extinction of species, suggesting that biodiversity and evolution may be closely related, a view that has been widely discussed in the scientific community.
The notion that the long-term trend of wet or dry climate may have been a catalyst for evolution in the history of Charles Darwin, according to the original author of the paper, Andrew Cohen, is a distinguished University Professor at the University of Arizona. of Geosciences and the Department of Environment and Evolutionary Biology. A major turning point came in the late 1990’s, with the introduction of the scientific community hypothesis for the selection of influential varieties.
“The idea here is that not only is climate change management as important as the evolutionary driver in the hominin list, but biodiversity and climate change,” explains Cohen. “As our ancestors faced rapidly changing circumstances, this theory suggested that they needed to be more strategic and able to deal with more emergencies, which led to the emergence of new species and some extinctions.”
Sample in the African continent:
In the present study, researchers analyzed samples taken from the basins, lakes, and landfills at 17 locations across the African continent and surrounding areas. Environmental data were obtained by analyzing records from pollen, algae, dust, leaf wax, soil isotopes and other visible structures that provide clues about plant species and ecosystems in the area in which they are located.
In order to compile data from these highly diverse records and mock the basic pattern of climate diversity, Cohen said the team must overcome a major challenge: how to measure flexibility and compare from one sample to another. an important driver in evolution, should be the driver and evolution in other large mammals, ”he added. “Think, for example, of polar bears and how they are affected by current climate change.”
The authors have used borrowed methods in modern wildlife biology to account for the long-standing bias plaguing paleontologists: the inherent imperfection of the fossil record, the second author of the study, Andrew Du, portrayed with a block of Swiss cheese. If a person could pierce a core sample with cheese, there would be gaps where the core would pierce the cheese. Similarly, a fossil record of some kind has spaces – times when no bones were found – combined with times when there were fossils. This makes it very difficult to determine exactly when a species appeared in the fossil record and when it disappeared.
During a recent study, scientists compared the proportion of marked animals to unmarked animals. Using statistics, this allows them to get an idea of the size and structure of most people. Du, an assistant professor in the Department of Anthropology & Geography at Colorado State University, explained how this process works in fossil systems.“Suppose we see a new species emerging from the fossil record, and then we discover a different kind of debris in the same type of second period, we miss it the third time, but we see it again later. phase four”he said. “What it tells us is that although we have not seen species of animals in the third period, we know that they did exist. This gives us an idea of the quality of the fossil record over a period of time, and we can tell you about this.
Fossil Record&Extinction Species
Combining all these data has allowed researchers to compare biodiversity patterns and their relationships with mammals’ origins and extinction rates. “That trend follows global snowfall patterns and sea temperatures across Africa. On top of that, we found another trend: As we enter the ice age, we see more and more ups and downs; -400,000 Milankovic. “In each case, the record of the fossil record and the extinction of large vegetation species, as well as the remains of hominin, appear to have been broken by these patterns of climate change. While the authors agree that the hypothesis for diversity may still be valid but it works in varying degrees, they hope to encourage the scientific community to consider the hypothesis of diversity selection in the most important way, “rather than simply accept it as the basic principle of how we view fossils.
Source Journal Reference:Andrew S. Cohen et al. Plio-Pleistocene environmental variability in Africa and its implications for mammalian evolution. PNAS, 2022 DOI: 10.1073/pnas.2107393119
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