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futurepaleontologist1
MemberCompsognathusAug-30-2013 10:43 PMAlrighty, if you've talked to me before you know I love all three major eons in Earth's history. This contraversy comes from the late Pliestocene when the world was starting to thaw out again. Many animal species had adapted to the intense freeze when it first started, but once the world heated up 40% of significant mammal species are gone. Why couldn't they re-adapt to their previous environment and why are they gone with little trace? Tell me and state your reasoning
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4 Replies
Deltadromeus
MemberCompsognathusAug-31-2013 8:18 AMNew animals for the heated world basically ate the plants and eveded predators better than the old ones. The new predators and new herbivores basically just killed off the old herbivores and carnivores. And the plants changed, so they also killed of the herbivores.
Hi
DinoFights
MemberCompsognathusAug-31-2013 12:04 PMThey didn't have the flexibility to adapt anymore and were outcompeted quickly because of it. Many animals get outcompeted without directly competing with another species in the sense that one animal's prey depletes and so do they, and another predator raises in numbers because it doesn't risk competing as much. Eventually, the old predator is wiped out.
At least that's what I've picked up from research on this stuff.
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Rex Fan 684
MemberCompsognathusAug-31-2013 8:14 PMI specialize in the Mesozoic, but as far as the final Ice Age goes, I'm guessing, as with many things, they could not re-adapt fast enough. These changes were taking place in a very short amount of time. A few thousand years or so. The dinosaurs for example had a couple million years to adapt and change between major events(excluding their extinction which happened somewhat quickly as well).
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The_Captn
MemberCompsognathusSep-01-2013 6:44 AMI have to concur with RexFan: it seems that the end of the Pleistocene brought some rather quick climatic changes with it. This had an environmental impact way too profound for some of the more massive Vertebrates to adapt to. Interesstingly enough though, it looks like of all the Megafauna that went extinct during the last 50.000 years, nearly 50% went extinct during an event appx. 12.000 years ago called the 'Younger Dryas Event'. This event marks a rebound of the climate after it started to get warmer, at the end of the ice age. That means that these animals didn't die because of the cliamte getting warmer but because of a very short-term re-cooling of the climate and the accompanying migration of vegetation zones to the south.
Cheers,
The_Captn
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