• Early Oligocene mammalian mass extinction in Afro-Arabia

    From Pandora@21:1/5 to All on Fri Oct 8 20:35:53 2021
    Widespread loss of mammalian lineage and dietary diversity in the
    early Oligocene of Afro-Arabia.

    Abstract

    Diverse lines of geological and geochemical evidence indicate that the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) marked the onset of a global cooling
    phase, rapid growth of the Antarctic ice sheet, and a worldwide drop
    in sea level. Paleontologists have established that shifts in
    mammalian community structure in Europe and Asia were broadly
    coincident with these events, but the potential impact of early
    Oligocene climate change on the mammalian communities of Afro-Arabia
    has long been unclear. Here we employ dated phylogenies of multiple
    endemic Afro-Arabian mammal clades (anomaluroid and hystricognath
    rodents, anthropoid and strepsirrhine primates, and carnivorous
    hyaenodonts) to investigate lineage diversification and loss since the
    early Eocene. These analyses provide evidence for widespread mammalian extinction in the early Oligocene of Afro-Arabia, with almost
    two-thirds of peak late Eocene diversity lost in these clades by ~30
    Ma. Using homology-free dental topographic metrics, we further
    demonstrate that the loss of Afro-Arabian rodent and primate lineages
    was associated with a major reduction in molar occlusal topographic
    disparity, suggesting a correlated loss of dietary diversity. These
    results raise new questions about the relative importance of global
    versus local influences in shaping the evolutionary trajectories of Afro-Arabia’s endemic mammals during the Oligocene.

    Open access:
    https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-021-02707-9

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