A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: file_get_contents(https://...@gmail.com&api_key=61f08fa0b96a73de8c900d749fcb997acc09): Failed to open stream: HTTP request failed! HTTP/1.1 429 Too Many Requests

Filename: helpers/my_audit_helper.php

Line Number: 143

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/application/helpers/my_audit_helper.php
Line: 143
Function: file_get_contents

File: /var/www/html/application/helpers/my_audit_helper.php
Line: 209
Function: simplexml_load_file_from_url

File: /var/www/html/application/helpers/my_audit_helper.php
Line: 3098
Function: getPubMedXML

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Detail.php
Line: 574
Function: pubMedSearch_Global

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Detail.php
Line: 488
Function: pubMedGetRelatedKeyword

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

A PHP Error was encountered

Severity: Warning

Message: Attempt to read property "Count" on bool

Filename: helpers/my_audit_helper.php

Line Number: 3100

Backtrace:

File: /var/www/html/application/helpers/my_audit_helper.php
Line: 3100
Function: _error_handler

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Detail.php
Line: 574
Function: pubMedSearch_Global

File: /var/www/html/application/controllers/Detail.php
Line: 488
Function: pubMedGetRelatedKeyword

File: /var/www/html/index.php
Line: 316
Function: require_once

Plio-Pleistocene environmental variability in Africa and its implications for mammalian evolution. | LitMetric

AI Article Synopsis

  • The study focuses on understanding how environmental variability (EV) during the Plio-Pleistocene influenced mammalian evolution in Africa, particularly testing the variability selection hypothesis which suggests a link between EV and rates of species formation and extinction.
  • Researchers compiled a comprehensive record of Pan-African EV and discovered that it has increased in variability since around 3.7 million years ago, correlating with changes in global ice volume and sea surface temperatures.
  • The analysis of fossil mammal speciation and extinction rates revealed no significant relationship with EV, challenging the validity of the variability selection hypothesis in the context of macroevolution.

Article Abstract

Understanding the climatic drivers of environmental variability (EV) during the Plio-Pleistocene and EV’s influence on mammalian macroevolution are two outstanding foci of research in African paleoclimatology and evolutionary biology. The potential effects of EV are especially relevant for testing the variability selection hypothesis, which predicts a positive relationship between EV and speciation and extinction rates in fossil mammals. Addressing these questions is stymied, however, by 1) a lack of multiple comparable EV records of sufficient temporal resolution and duration, and 2) the incompleteness of the mammalian fossil record. Here, we first compile a composite history of Pan-African EV spanning the Plio-Pleistocene, which allows us to explore which climatic variables influenced EV. We find that EV exhibits 1) a long-term trend of increasing variability since ∼3.7 Ma, coincident with rising variability in global ice volume and sea surface temperatures around Africa, and 2) a 400-ky frequency correlated with seasonal insolation variability. We then estimate speciation and extinction rates for fossil mammals from eastern Africa using a method that accounts for sampling variation. We find no statistically significant relationship between EV and estimated speciation or extinction rates across multiple spatial scales. These findings are inconsistent with the variability selection hypothesis as applied to macroevolutionary processes.

Download full-text PDF

Source
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9169865PMC
http://dx.doi.org/10.1073/pnas.2107393119DOI Listing

Publication Analysis

Top Keywords

speciation extinction
12
extinction rates
12
environmental variability
8
variability selection
8
selection hypothesis
8
rates fossil
8
fossil mammals
8
variability
7
plio-pleistocene environmental
4
variability africa
4

Similar Publications

Want AI Summaries of new PubMed Abstracts delivered to your In-box?

Enter search terms and have AI summaries delivered each week - change queries or unsubscribe any time!