Publications by authors named "Henry C Fricke"
Article Synopsis
- Abrupt changes in the global carbon cycle during the early Eocene led to significant global warming events similar to today's climate change.
- During these warming events, specifically the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM) and Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 (ETM2), mammalian dwarfing was observed as a response to climate shifts.
- The study found that during ETM2, certain mammal groups, especially early horses, showed a notable decrease in size, indicating that the degree of dwarfing correlates with the intensity of these warming events.
Sauropod dinosaurs were the largest vertebrates ever to walk the Earth, and as mega-herbivores they were important parts of terrestrial ecosystems. In the Late Jurassic-aged Morrison depositional basin of western North America, these animals occupied lowland river-floodplain settings characterized by a seasonally dry climate. Massive herbivores with high nutritional and water needs could periodically experience nutritional and water stress under these conditions, and thus the common occurrence of sauropods in this basin has remained a paradox.
View Article and Find Full Text PDFThe nature of the physiology and thermal regulation of the nonavian dinosaurs is the subject of debate. Previously, arguments have been made for both endothermic and ectothermic metabolisms on the basis of differing methodologies. We used clumped isotope thermometry to determine body temperatures from the fossilized teeth of large Jurassic sauropods.
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