scholarly journals Rapid Pliocene Diversification of Modern Kangaroos

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan M. C. Couzens ◽  
Gavin J. Prideaux
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Dietary Change ◽  
Molecular Evidence ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Crown Height ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals ◽  
The Past

Abstract:Differentiating between ancient and rapidly-evolved clades is critical for understanding impacts of environmental change on biodiversity. Australia possesses many aridity-adapted lineages, the origins of which have been linked by molecular evidence to late Miocene drying. Using dental macrowear and molar crown-height measurements spanning the past 25 million years, we show that the most iconic of Australia’s terrestrial mammals, ‘true’ kangaroos and wallabies (Macropodini), diversified in response to Pliocene grassland emergence. In contrast, low-crowned short-faced kangaroos radiated into browsing niches as the late Cenozoic became more arid, contradicting the view that this was a period of global decline among browsers. Our results link warm intervals with bursts of diversification and undermine arguments attributing Pleistocene megafaunal extinction to aridity-forced dietary change.

Rapid Pliocene adaptive radiation of modern kangaroos

Science ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 362 (6410) ◽  
pp. 72-75 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aidan M. C. Couzens ◽  
Gavin J. Prideaux
Keyword(s):  
Late Miocene ◽  
Adaptive Radiation ◽  
Dietary Change ◽  
Late Cenozoic ◽  
Crown Height ◽  
Climatic Oscillations ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals ◽  
The Past

Differentiating between ancient and younger, more rapidly evolved clades is important for determining paleoenvironmental drivers of diversification. Australia possesses many aridity-adapted lineages, the origins of which have been closely linked to late Miocene continental aridification. Using dental macrowear and molar crown height measurements, spanning the past 25 million years, we show that the most iconic Australian terrestrial mammals, “true” kangaroos (Macropodini), adaptively radiated in response to mid-Pliocene grassland expansion rather than Miocene aridity. In contrast, low-crowned, short-faced kangaroos radiated into predominantly browsing niches as the late Cenozoic became more arid, contradicting the view that this was an interval of global browser decline. Our results implicate warm-to-cool climatic oscillations as a trigger for adaptive radiation and refute arguments attributing Pleistocene megafaunal extinction to aridity-forced dietary change.

An historical analysis of species references in American English

Corpora ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 14 (3) ◽  
pp. 327-349
Author(s):  
Craig Frayne
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Sentiment Analysis ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
English Language ◽  
Language Use ◽  
American English ◽  
Historical Analysis ◽  
The Past ◽  
Corpus Studies ◽  
Google Books

This study uses the two largest available American English language corpora, Google Books and the Corpus of Historical American English (coha), to investigate relations between ecology and language. The paper introduces ecolinguistics as a promising theme for corpus research. While some previous ecolinguistic research has used corpus approaches, there is a case to be made for quantitative methods that draw on larger datasets. Building on other corpus studies that have made connections between language use and environmental change, this paper investigates whether linguistic references to other species have changed in the past two centuries and, if so, how. The methodology consists of two main parts: an examination of the frequency of common names of species followed by aspect-level sentiment analysis of concordance lines. Results point to both opportunities and challenges associated with applying corpus methods to ecolinguistc research.

USING HISTORICAL ANNUAL REPORTS IN TEACHING: LETTING THE PAST BENEFIT THE PRESENT

1992 ◽  
Vol 19 (1) ◽  
pp. 29-50 ◽  
Author(s):  
Joel Amernic ◽  
Ramy Elitzur
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Cash Flow ◽  
Accounting Education ◽  
Annual Reports ◽  
The Past ◽  
Response To Environmental Change

In this article, it is suggested that accounting education may be enhanced by the use of published historical accounting materials, such as annual reports. Comparing such materials with modern reports serves to reinforce the notion that accounting evolves in response to environmental change. Further, requiring students to analytically derive cash flow statements from historical published annual reports provides several direct pedagogical benefits.

scholarly journals Himalayan perceptions: Environmental change and the well-being of mountain peoples

1970 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 17-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jack D Ives
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Environmental Change ◽  
Environmental Degradation ◽  
Full Text ◽  
Armed Conflict ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Government Agencies ◽  
The Past ◽  
Highland Forests ◽  
Development Paradigm

Preview of Himalayan perceptions: Environmental change and the well-being of mountain peoples by JD Ives Routledge, London and New York To be published in August 2004 Himalayan Perspectives returns to the enormously popular development paradigm that Ives dubbed the ‘Theory of Himalayan Degradation’. According to this seductive construct, poverty and overpopulation in the Himalayas was leading to degradation of highland forests, erosion, and downstream flooding. In the ‘Himalayan Dilemma’, Ives and Messerli exposed this “Theory” as a dangerous collection of assumptions and misrepresentations. While most scholars in the field promptly conceded Ives and Messerli’s points, the Theory has somehow survived as the guiding myth of development planners and many government agencies. In his new book, Ives returns to drive a stake through the heart of this revenant. His book not only reviews the research that, over the past 15 years, has confirmed the arguments of the ‘Himalayan Dilemma’; it also takes a close look at all those destructive factors that were overlooked by the conveniently simplistic ‘Theory of Himalayan Environmental Degradation’: government mismanagement, oppression of mountain minorities, armed conflict, and inappropriate tourism development. Himalayan Journal of Sciences 2(3): 17-19, 2004 The full text is of this article is available at the Himalayan Journal of Sciences website

scholarly journals Sixty Years with the Chrysobalanaceae

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ghillean T. Prance
Keyword(s):  
Economic Botany ◽  
Field Studies ◽  
Molecular Evidence ◽  
New Techniques ◽  
Conservation Ecology ◽  
The Past ◽  
New Findings ◽  
The Family ◽  
Molecular Studies ◽  
Economic Use

AbstractA review is given of the studies of Ghillean Prance and associates on the Chrysobalanaceae over the past sixty years. This has focussed on defining the generic boundaries in the family and on monographic work with a worldwide approach to this pantropical family. The importance of field studies for work on monographs and Floras is emphasized. Monographs are still the basis for much work on conservation, ecology and economic botany and are needed as a foundation for molecular studies. The importance of being open to experimenting with new techniques and as a result being willing to change the taxonomy in accordance with new findings is demonstrated and emphasized. The twelve genera of the Chrysobalanaceae at the beginning of this career-long study have now increased to twenty-eight in order to present a much better monophyletic and evolutionary arrangement based on recent molecular evidence. In particular it was necessary to divide and rearrange the originally large genera Parinari and Licania into a number of smaller segregate genera. All known species were included in a worldwide monograph published in 2003. A brief review of the economic use for the family is given.

scholarly journals Dental functional traits of mammals resolve productivity in terrestrial ecosystems past and present

2012 ◽  
Vol 279 (1739) ◽  
pp. 2793-2799 ◽  
Author(s):  
Liping Liu ◽  
Kai Puolamäki ◽  
Jussi T. Eronen ◽  
Majid M. Ataabadi ◽  
Elina Hernesniemi ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Net Primary Productivity ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Functional Trait ◽  
Geological Time ◽  
Crown Height ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Functional Interpretation ◽  
Terrestrial Mammals ◽  
Terrestrial Biomes ◽  
The Relationship

We have recently shown that rainfall, one of the main climatic determinants of terrestrial net primary productivity (NPP), can be robustly estimated from mean molar tooth crown height (hypsodonty) of mammalian herbivores. Here, we show that another functional trait of herbivore molar surfaces, longitudinal loph count, can be similarly used to extract reasonable estimates of rainfall but also of temperature, the other main climatic determinant of terrestrial NPP. Together, molar height and the number of longitudinal lophs explain 73 per cent of the global variation in terrestrial NPP today and resolve the main terrestrial biomes in bivariate space. We explain the functional interpretation of the relationships between dental function and climate variables in terms of long- and short-term demands. We also show how the spatially and temporally dense fossil record of terrestrial mammals can be used to investigate the relationship between biodiversity and productivity under changing climates in geological time. The placement of the fossil chronofaunas in biome space suggests that they most probably represent multiple palaeobiomes, at least some of which do not correspond directly to any biomes of today's world.

Faunal and environmental change in the late Miocene Siwaliks of northern Pakistan

Paleobiology ◽  
2002 ◽  
Vol 28 (sp3) ◽  
pp. 1-71 ◽  
Author(s):  
John C. Barry ◽  
Michèle E. Morgan ◽  
Lawrence J. Flynn ◽  
David Pilbeam ◽  
Anna K. Behrensmeyer ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Change ◽  
Late Miocene ◽  
Northern Pakistan
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