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Extreme ecosystem instability suppressed tropical dinosaur dominance for 30 million years

Extreme ecosystem instability suppressed tropical dinosaur dominance for 30 million years
Extreme ecosystem instability suppressed tropical dinosaur dominance for 30 million years
This is, to our knowledge, the first multiproxy study of climate and associated faunal change for an early Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystem containing an extensive vertebrate fossil record, including early dinosaurs. Our detailed and coupled high-resolution records allow us to sensitively examine the interplay between climate change and ecosystem evolution at low paleolatitudes during this critical interval of Earth's history when modern terrestrial ecosystems first evolved against a backdrop of high CO2 in a hothouse world. We demonstrate that these terrestrial ecosystems evolved within a generally arid but strongly fluctuating paleoclimate that was subject to pervasive wildfires, and that these environmental conditions in the early Mesozoic prevented large active warm-blooded herbivorous dinosaurs from becoming established in subtropical low latitudes until later in the Mesozoic.
Early Mesozoic, carbon cycling, atmospheric CO2, terrestrial ecosystems, wildfires
0027-8424
7909-7913
Whiteside, Jessica H.
5d9ad7aa-eba3-4ad9-9f6f-81be71b6829b
Lindström, Sofie
fd413e16-cac3-461f-8294-d79244fc8d11
Irmis, Randall B.
1490574b-4ad6-4896-a1d7-b66933a7e12e
Glasspool, Ian J.
3b0f665c-d9ff-42b5-b1d4-c78ff7b7e658
Schaller, Morgan F.
9a8d6942-3a23-4abd-85c3-88acf42268e7
Dunlavey, Maria
8fd21473-7576-4d38-8ecf-414154a4813a
Nesbitt, Sterling J.
605d5fbd-7096-4ff4-bb73-757664c69ccf
Smith, Nathan D.
66ae64a1-91a1-419b-87c6-5f8b1a753ecd
Turner, Alan H.
38cc3e3d-9951-462d-9190-a0b1366f5c83
Whiteside, Jessica H.
5d9ad7aa-eba3-4ad9-9f6f-81be71b6829b
Lindström, Sofie
fd413e16-cac3-461f-8294-d79244fc8d11
Irmis, Randall B.
1490574b-4ad6-4896-a1d7-b66933a7e12e
Glasspool, Ian J.
3b0f665c-d9ff-42b5-b1d4-c78ff7b7e658
Schaller, Morgan F.
9a8d6942-3a23-4abd-85c3-88acf42268e7
Dunlavey, Maria
8fd21473-7576-4d38-8ecf-414154a4813a
Nesbitt, Sterling J.
605d5fbd-7096-4ff4-bb73-757664c69ccf
Smith, Nathan D.
66ae64a1-91a1-419b-87c6-5f8b1a753ecd
Turner, Alan H.
38cc3e3d-9951-462d-9190-a0b1366f5c83

Whiteside, Jessica H., Lindström, Sofie, Irmis, Randall B., Glasspool, Ian J., Schaller, Morgan F., Dunlavey, Maria, Nesbitt, Sterling J., Smith, Nathan D. and Turner, Alan H. (2015) Extreme ecosystem instability suppressed tropical dinosaur dominance for 30 million years. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112 (26), 7909-7913. (doi:10.1073/pnas.1505252112).

Record type: Article

Abstract

This is, to our knowledge, the first multiproxy study of climate and associated faunal change for an early Mesozoic terrestrial ecosystem containing an extensive vertebrate fossil record, including early dinosaurs. Our detailed and coupled high-resolution records allow us to sensitively examine the interplay between climate change and ecosystem evolution at low paleolatitudes during this critical interval of Earth's history when modern terrestrial ecosystems first evolved against a backdrop of high CO2 in a hothouse world. We demonstrate that these terrestrial ecosystems evolved within a generally arid but strongly fluctuating paleoclimate that was subject to pervasive wildfires, and that these environmental conditions in the early Mesozoic prevented large active warm-blooded herbivorous dinosaurs from becoming established in subtropical low latitudes until later in the Mesozoic.

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More information

e-pub ahead of print date: June 2015
Published date: 30 June 2015
Keywords: Early Mesozoic, carbon cycling, atmospheric CO2, terrestrial ecosystems, wildfires
Organisations: Paleooceanography & Palaeoclimate

Identifiers

Local EPrints ID: 378080
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/378080
ISSN: 0027-8424
PURE UUID: 2924bf58-b14a-41e4-9af9-b3c9c802fbb4

Catalogue record

Date deposited: 16 Jun 2015 09:44
Last modified: 14 Mar 2024 20:16

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Contributors

Author: Sofie Lindström
Author: Randall B. Irmis
Author: Ian J. Glasspool
Author: Morgan F. Schaller
Author: Maria Dunlavey
Author: Sterling J. Nesbitt
Author: Nathan D. Smith
Author: Alan H. Turner

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