Publication Date:
2005-10-01
Description:
On the basis of a carbon isotopic record of both marine carbonates and organic matter from the Triassic-Jurassic boundary to the present, we modeled oxygen concentrations over the past 205 million years. Our analysis indicates that atmospheric oxygen approximately doubled over this period, with relatively rapid increases in the early Jurassic and the Eocene. We suggest that the overall increase in oxygen, mediated by the formation of passive continental margins along the Atlantic Ocean during the opening phase of the current Wilson cycle, was a critical factor in the evolution, radiation, and subsequent increase in average size of placental mammals.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉Falkowski, Paul G -- Katz, Miriam E -- Milligan, Allen J -- Fennel, Katja -- Cramer, Benjamin S -- Aubry, Marie Pierre -- Berner, Robert A -- Novacek, Michael J -- Zapol, Warren M -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 2005 Sep 30;309(5744):2202-4.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Institute of Marine and Coastal Sciences, Rutgers University, 71 Dudley Road, New Brunswick, NJ 08901, USA. falko@imcs.rutgers.edu〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/16195457" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Animals
;
*Atmosphere
;
*Biological Evolution
;
Biomass
;
Body Size
;
Carbon/analysis
;
Carbon Dioxide/analysis
;
Carbon Isotopes/analysis
;
Carbonates
;
Fossils
;
Geologic Sediments/chemistry
;
*Mammals/anatomy & histology/physiology
;
Oxidation-Reduction
;
*Oxygen/analysis
;
Photosynthesis
;
Phytoplankton/physiology
;
Placenta/physiology
;
Regression Analysis
;
Reproduction
;
Sulfur Isotopes/analysis
;
Temperature
;
Time
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
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