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The Winners of Mass Extinction: With Predators Gone, Prey Thrives

By Guest PostMay 11, 2011Scienceage of fishes, age of the crinoids, crinoid fossils, devonian era, devonian period, ecology, ecosystem, Environment, fish, fossil record, fossils, hangenberg event, lauren sallan, lotka volterra cycles, marine vertebrate, mass extinction, modern biodiversity, natural experiment, ocean life, ohio state university, paleontologist, population of prey species, predator prey dynamics, predator prey relationships, residual defenses, robert nicholls, thomas kammer, university of chicago, william ausich

*Extinction of fishes 360 million years ago created natural ecology experiment*

In present-day ecology, the removal or addition of a predator in an ecosystem can produce dramatic changes in the population of prey species. For the first time, scientists have observed the same dynamics in the fossil record, thanks to a mass extinction that decimated ocean life 360 million years ago.

What was bad for fish was good for the fish’s food, according to a paper published online in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Researchers from the University of Chicago, West Virginia University and The Ohio State University found that the mass extinction known as the Hangenberg event produced a “natural experiment” in the fossil record, with results that mirror modern observations about predator-prey relationships. (more…)

UF Pine lsland Pollen Study Leads to Revision of State’s Ancient Geography

By Guest PostMarch 3, 2011Scienceavon park formation, calusa indian village, david jarzen, deep injection well, early eocene, evolution of mammals, florida, flowering plants, fort myers, fossils, fredrick rich, geologic history, gray lignitic clay, jonathan bloch, limestone, marine environments, oligocene epoch, paleontologist, phytoplankton, pine island, pollen, sea level

GAINESVILLE, Fla. — A new University of Florida study of 45-million-year-old pollen from Pine Island west of Fort Myers has led to a new understanding of the state’s geologic history, showing Florida could be 10 million to 15 million years older than previously believed.

The discovery of land in Florida during the early Eocene opens the possibility for researchers to explore the existence of land animals at that time, including their adaptation, evolution and dispersal until the present. (more…)

“Stocky Dragon” Dinosaur Terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe

By Guest PostSeptember 14, 2010Sciencebalaur bondoc, Europe, fused bones, late cretaceous, paleontologist, theropod, velociraptor

Paleontologists have discovered that a close relative of Velociraptor hunted the dwarfed inhabitants of Late Cretaceous Europe, an island landscape largely isolated from nearby continents.

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Tag Archives: paleontologist

The Winners of Mass Extinction: With Predators Gone, Prey Thrives

UF Pine lsland Pollen Study Leads to Revision of State’s Ancient Geography

“Stocky Dragon” Dinosaur Terrorized Late Cretaceous Europe