Council Chronicle

Wednesday, January 20, 2021
Log in
  • National News
  • Business & Economy
  • Technology
  • Science
  • Health
  • About CC
    • Our Team
    • Contact Us
    • Privacy Policy GDPR
    • Terms of Use

Pages

  • About Council Chronicle
  • Contact Us
  • Our Team
  • Privacy Policy GDPR
  • Terms of Use

Recent Posts

  • Former Wife of Prolific Arizona Serial Killer Speaks Up First Time after Scottsdale Suicide June 29, 2018
  • Indiana Couple Arrested After Authorities Discovered Cruel Punishment Device in Home June 28, 2018
  • Schizophrenic Oregon Man Who Was Seen Carrying His Mother’s Head Committed to Psychiatric Facility June 27, 2018
  • Texas Lawmen Looking for Four Suspect Who Tortured Child During Home Invasion June 27, 2018
  • Retirement Home Resident Reported Fake Fire to Draw In Firefighters and Shoot Them June 26, 2018
  • Arkansas Man Kills Wife, Sticks Body In Chest Freezer Before Committing Suicide June 26, 2018
  • West Virginia Man Arrested After He Tried to Baptize Family by Drowning Them in the Bathtub June 25, 2018

Climate Change Kept Herbivorous Dinosaurs Away From Equator In Late Triassic

June 20, 2015 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Email, RSS Follow

Climate Change Kept Herbivorous Dinosaurs Away From Equator In Late TriassicHerbivorous dinosaurs roaming the earth 200 million years ago were kept from reaching the equatorial zones by climate change.

Since the age of dinosaurs began on Earth and long after, the plant-eaters were inexplicably not found anywhere near the equatorial meridians. This territory is believed to have been populated solely by carnivorous dinosaurs, rather small in appearance compared with their plant-eating brethren.

Why were the low-latitudes of the equator so undesirable for the herbivorous giants remained a baffling question until recently.

A team of researchers from the University of Utah and the Natural History Museum of Utah, as well as the University of Southampton, UK,  looked at the Ghost Ranch site located in the north of New Mexico and the wealth of fossils dating to the Late Triassic that are found here.

Based on the pieces of evidence at hand, the researchers concluded that what prevented the herbivorous dinosaurs from swinging right in the equatorial region like their carnivorous peers were the extreme and violent fluctuations in climate.

The tropical climate was constantly showcasing extreme events like drought, intense heat and ferocious wildfires that constantly changed the landscape and vegetation.

Randall Irmis, paleontologist at the Natural History Museum of Utah and co-author of the study explained:

“It was a time of climate extremes that went back and forth unpredictably and large, warm-blooded dinosaurian herbivores weren’t able to exist nearer to the equator – there was not enough dependable plant food”.

Specifically, the researchers looked at the fossils and charcoal that the wildfires left behind. To be able to reconstruct how the climate changed 200 million years ago, the scientists looked at carbonate nodules and stable isotopes found in organic matter at the Ghost Ranch.

During the Triassic Period, Ghost Ranch was as close to the equator as southern India is today.

In the first study of its kind, climate and ecology are put in the spotlight, shedding light on the implications of modern climate change as well. During the Late Triassic, the levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere were four to six times higher than modern day levels.

This may be indicative of the fact that if present trends continue and no changes are made to curb greenhouse gas emission, the climate we are creating will suppress the ecosystem of low-latitudes in a similar fashion to that of the Late Triassic.

University of Southampton’s Jessica Whiteside, lead author of the study, stated that each one of the datasets the researchers were working on are consistent with each other.

While the climate was changing violently, the pollen grains and the fossilized spores indicated different flora that grew around the equator at different times of the Late Triassic.

According to these findings, dinosaurs accounted for only 15 percent of the animal fossils found at Ghost Ranch. Of these, the majority were the carnivorous theropods. Sauropodomorphs or the giant, long-necked plant-eating dinosaurs did not feature at Ghost Ranch.

Knowing how the climate and vegetation looked at the time of Late Triassic makes it easier to understand why the equatorial regions were not a hospitable of desirable habitat for the herbivorous dinosaurs.

The study is published in its entirety in the journal PNAS.

Image Source: sciencedaily.com

Email, RSS Follow

Filed Under: Science

Leave a Reply Cancel reply

Your email address will not be published.

Subscribe to Blog via Email

Enter your email address to subscribe to this blog and receive notifications of new posts by email.

Join 18 other subscribers

Recent Articles

ethics in dictionary highlighted

NIH Will Examine Ethical Problems of One of Their Studies

March 27, 2018 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

biomutant character

Eleven-Minutes Long Biomutant Trailer Prepares You for Amazing Gameplay and Mechanics

August 26, 2017 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

intime alibaba

Intime May Be Acquired By Its Founder And Alibaba

January 11, 2017 By Jesse Skelton Leave a Comment

Newborn baby

A Woman Gave Birth to Baby After Fertilizing Frozen Ovary

December 16, 2016 By Lee Raulin Leave a Comment

Parkes radio telescope

Hunting Aliens with Parkes Radio Telescope

November 11, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

man suffering from election season stress

Stressed Out? Here Are 7 Ways to Get Rid of Election Season Stress

October 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Disney World wants to prevent fraud.

Disney World prevents fraud by scanning children’s fingers

September 8, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

artificial intelligence

How will the Artificial Intelligence will affect our life by 2030?

September 3, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

opera sync

Opera Sync resets passwords after it was hacked

August 30, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

viping

Why are teens viping – flavours or nicotine?

August 26, 2016 By Dustin Smith Leave a Comment

sex abuse

Doctors in sex abuse cases return to work. What happens with their victims?

August 25, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

affection

Affection or food – which is more important for a dog?

August 19, 2016 By Adam Martin Leave a Comment

Chipotle restaurant

Chipotle to Open its First Burger Joint

July 30, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Chicken sandwich from Chick-fil-A

Chick-fil-A Rolls Out Protein-Packed Grill Breakfast Sandwich

July 20, 2016 By Ben Beckstrom Leave a Comment

Related Articles

  • Two neutron stars colliding, forming a gravitational wave

    Are Colliding Wormholes the Real Producers of Gravitational Waves? (Study)

    Jun 15, 2018
  • Trepanation

    Ancient Peruvian Doctors Better at Trepanation Than Civil War Surgeons, New Study Finds

    Jun 13, 2018
  • Songbirds

    UK and Germany Biologists Closer to Understanding How Two-Way Communication Works in the Animal Kingdom

    Jun 6, 2018
  • nile crocodiles on white sand in a museum

    Crocodiles Listen to Bach as Researchers Study Their Brains in New Experiment (Study)

    May 9, 2018
  • view of coast from isle of skye

    Scientists Discover Rare, Giant Dinosaur Tracks in Scotland (Study)

    Apr 5, 2018
  • Intelligent Vehicles

    Stanford to Spearhead Intelligent Vehicles Revolution with Cars that can See Around the Corner

    Mar 7, 2018
  • Floating robot and ISS

    Floating Robot To Join the ISS Crew in June

    Mar 5, 2018
  • exploding star

    First Ever Photo of a Star Exploding Captured by an Amateur Photographer

    Feb 26, 2018
  • little skate at the bottom of the ocean

    Did Ancient Fish Start Walking Before Even Leaving the Ocean? (Study)

    Feb 12, 2018
  • Mayan pyramid in Guatemala

    Laser Technology Reveals More Maya Ruins in Guatemala

    Feb 4, 2018

Categories

  • Breaking News
  • Business & Economy
  • Entertainment
  • Health
  • National News
  • Nature
  • Science
  • Technology
  • World News

Copyright © 2021 CouncilChronicle.com

About · Terms of Use · Privacy Policy · Contact

This website uses cookies to ensure you get the best experience on our website. Learn more.