No the right time frame, still, I think. Oh, well.
| Submit your comments on this article |
| Science & Technology |
| Marine Ecosystems Changed 250M Years Ago At Mass Extinction |
| 2006-11-27 |
| The earth experienced its biggest mass extinction about 250 million years ago, an event that wiped out an estimated 95% of marine species and 70% of land species. New research shows that this mass extinction did more than eliminate species: it fundamentally changed the basic ecology of the world's oceans. Ecologically simple marine communities were largely displaced by complex communities. Furthermore, this apparently abrupt shift set a new pattern that has continued ever since. It reflects the current dominance of higher-metabolism, mobile organisms (such as snails, clams and crabs) that actually go out and find their own food and the decreased diversity of older groups of low-metabolism, stationary organisms (such as lamp shells and sea lilies) that filter nutrients from the water. So says embargoed research to be published in Science on November 24, 2006. An accompanying article suggests that this striking change escaped detection until now because previous research relied on single numbers--such as the number of species alive at one particular time or the distribution of species in a local community--to track the diversity of marine life. In the new research, however, scientists examined the relative abundance of marine life forms in communities over the past 540 million years. One reason they were able to do this is because they tapped the new Paleobiology Database (http://www.pbdb.org), a huge repository of fossil occurrence data. The result is the first broad objective measurement of changes in the complexity of marine ecology over the Phanerozoic. More at da link |
| Posted by:Free Radical |
| #9 Thats a baby Megalodon, isn't it, as I've seen photos and book covers of larger SharkoSaurus'es where an adult man is roughly the size of a tooth??? IONews, LIVESCIENCE.com > GLOBAL WARMING THREATENS MALE CROCODILES; + FOX NEWS > NEW MALE CONTRACEPTION PILL WORKS. IOW, Iff GOD = NATURE DOESN'T KILL = CASTRATE US, WE MALE BRUTES ARE GONNA BUY AND [CHEMICALLY] CASTRATE = FEMINIZE/ANDROGYNIZE OURSELVES. Penn State doesn't need the FBI-CIA, etc. undercover - you know, the MAfia - anymore??? |
| Posted by: JosephMendiola 2006-11-27 22:37 |
| #8 Which simply proves that Exon has a time machine. |
| Posted by: Icerigger 2006-11-27 15:07 |
| #7 Carl, itsa period when the shit hit the phan. ;-) |
| Posted by: twobyfour 2006-11-27 15:00 |
| #6 "Phanerozoic" ?!? I used to be a paleontology geek, and knew all the era names. Now I'm convinced they're just making that up. |
| Posted by: Carl in N.H. 2006-11-27 11:48 |
| #5 Conclusion: Bush has a time machine. |
| Posted by: gromgoru 2006-11-27 11:33 |
| #4 Another achievement for the Marines! |
| Posted by: Chuck Simmins 2006-11-27 10:40 |
| #3 Oh come on tu3031, it wasn't Bush, it was Halliburton!!! And OOOOIIIIIILLL! SR71: great photo! It reminds us SCUBA divers that we are 'the other white meat!' |
| Posted by: Free Radical 2006-11-27 09:45 |
| #2 If that means it's because of that there are no megalodon lurking around near crowded beaches, then I'm all for it! No the right time frame, still, I think. Oh, well. |
| Posted by: anonymous5089 2006-11-27 09:21 |
| #1 I blame Bush. |
| Posted by: tu3031 2006-11-27 08:58 |