Environment: Study explores climate-evolution links

Posted on December 26, 2012 by Bob Berwyn
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The Olduvai Gorge in a NASA satellite image.

Rapid climate shifts may have spurred evolutionary leaps in Africa

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Early human evolution may have been accelerated by a series of rapid environmental changes about two million years ago, as fluctuating precipitation patterns forced early hominids to adapt to changes in food availability.

“The landscape early humans were inhabiting transitioned rapidly back and forth between a closed woodland and an open grassland about five to six times during a period of 200,000 years,” said Clayton Magill, graduate student in geosciences at Penn State. “These changes happened very abruptly, with each transition occurring over hundreds to just a few thousand years.”

The current leading hypothesis suggests that evolutionary changes among humans during the period the team investigated were related to a long, steady environmental change or even one big change in climate, According to Katherine Freeman, professor of geosciences, Penn State. (more…)

Filed under: Archaeology, climate and weather, Environment | Tagged: , , , , | Leave a Comment »

Study: European hippos shrank during cooler eras

Posted on October 30, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Fossil study explores links between climate and evolution

A Hippopotamus madagascariensis skeleton with a modern hippopotamus skull.

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — In a study that may help shape understanding of future climate change impacts, European researchers say that giant hippopotamuses that once wallowed in the banks of the Elbe River may have shrunk down to pymgy size during the Pleistocene era before driving them to warmer regions.

Reporting in the journal Boreas, the scientists reported on their findings after an extensive study of the fossil record.

“Species of hippo ranged across pre-historic Europe, including the giant Hippopotamus antiquus a huge animal which often weighed up to a tonne more than today’s African hippos,” said lead author Dr. Paul Mazza from the University of Florence. “While these giants ranged across Spain, Italy and Germany, ancestors of the modern Hippo, Hippopotamus amphibius, reached as far north as the British Isles.” (more…)

Filed under: biodiversity, climate and weather, Environment | Tagged: , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Global warming: Signs of evolution, adaptation evident in populations of Arctic shrews

Posted on July 13, 2012 by Bob Berwyn

Water shrews are native to northern Rockies and parts of the Pacific Northwest. Photo courtesy USFWS.

Studies of small mammals could help inform wildlife management in the face of climate change

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — U.S. Geological Survey scientists say various species of shrews in the Arctic have evolved rapidly in response to past climate changes, making them good test subjects to project how current climate change scenarios might play out.

Since the tiny mammals breed quickly and don’t migrate, they illustrate how species might change in response to global warming, showing both ecological and evolutionary responses to local conditions year-round. (more…)

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Does climate change drive human evolution?

Posted on September 26, 2011 by Bob Berwyn

An intriguing new study links key evolutionary changes with periods of climate change.

Widespread use of stone tools appears to be tied with a period of rapid climate fluctuations

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — British researchers have linked historic periods of climate instability with key events in the timeline of human evolution, finding that periods of rapid fluctuation in temperature coincided with the emergence of the first distant relatives of human beings and the appearance and spread of stone tools.

Dr. Matt Grove from the School of Archaeology, Classics and Egyptology at the University of Liverpool, reconstructed likely responses of human ancestors to the climate of the past five million years using genetic modelling techniques. (more…)

Filed under: Archaeology, climate and weather, Environment, global warming, Summit County news | Tagged: , , , , , , | 1 Comment »

Fungi played key role in ‘greening’ of Earth

Posted on November 7, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

An early botanical illustration of species of liverworts, among the most ancient of land plants.

Partnership with fungi helped early plants absorb carbon from the atmosphere

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Fungi probably played a key role early in the history of life on Earth, helping plants to colonize land areas more than 470 million year ago.

Researchers at the University of Sheffield (England) studied a thalloid liverwort plant, a member of the most ancient group of land plants that still exists and still shares many of the original features of its ancestors. They simulated a CO2-rich atmosphere similar to that of the Palaeozoic era when these plants originated. This environment significantly amplified the benefits of the fungi for the plant’s growth, favoring the early formation of the association between the plant and its fungal partner. The research was published Nov. 2 in Nature Communications. (more…)

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Biologists study coral fringes for evolutionary clues

Posted on June 28, 2010 by Bob Berwyn

Brain coral growing in the Caribbean. PHOTO COURTESY THE WIKIMEDIA COMMONS.

New research may help give clues on protecting at-risk ecosystems from climate change, other environmental changes

By Summit Voice

SUMMIT COUNTY — Researchers studying coral reefs say they may have some new clues on how to protect ecosystems under pressure from human activities and climate change.

After examining a wide range of coral samples from across the Caribbean, including millennium-old coral fossils, the scientists concluded that the evolutionary “action” on reefs is not in their central zones, but on the edges, where corals struggle to adapt to environmental changes and other threats.

“Evolution is the key to survival for life on Earth, and we feel it makes good sense to assess an area or ecosystem by its evolutionary potential rather than just the number of species it holds,” said Professor John Pandolfi, of Australia’s ARC Centre of Excellence for Coral Reef Studies.

“In terms of species richness, these fringe areas can’t compete with the spectacular hotspots of biodiversity which we normally protect with marine parks and other important measures. But in terms of evolutionary innovation, our work suggests they can be way out in front. You’d really hate to lose the populations that are really showing high levels of adaptation and change,” Pandolfi says. (more…)

Filed under: endangered species, Environment, Marine biology | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Leave a Comment »

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