AI 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.
Article Abstract
Abrupt perturbations of the global carbon cycle during the early Eocene are associated with rapid global warming events, which are analogous in many ways to present greenhouse warming. Mammal dwarfing has been observed, along with other changes in community structure, during the largest of these ancient global warming events, known as the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum [PETM; ~56 million years ago (Ma)]. We show that mammalian dwarfing accompanied the subsequent, smaller-magnitude warming event known as Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 [ETM2 (~53 Ma)]. Statistically significant decrease in body size during ETM2 is observed in two of four taxonomic groups analyzed in this study and is most clearly observed in early equids (horses). During ETM2, the best-sampled lineage of equids decreased in size by ~14%, as opposed to ~30% during the PETM. Thus, dwarfing appears to be a common evolutionary response of some mammals during past global warming events, and the extent of dwarfing seems related to the magnitude of the event.
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|---|---|
| http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5351980 | PMC |
| http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.1601430 | DOI Listing |
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