Publication Date:
1995-10-06
Description:
Marine records of African climate variability document a shift toward more arid conditions after 2.8 million years ago (Ma), evidently resulting from remote forcing by cold North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures associated with the onset of Northern Hemisphere glacial cycles. African climate before 2.8 Ma was regulated by low-latitude insolation forcing of monsoonal climate due to Earth orbital precession. Major steps in the evolution of African hominids and other vertebrates are coincident with shifts to more arid, open conditions near 2.8 Ma, 1.7 Ma, and 1.0 Ma, suggesting that some Pliocene (Plio)-Pleistocene speciation events may have been climatically mediated.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Notes: 〈/span〉deMenocal, P B -- New York, N.Y. -- Science. 1995 Oct 6;270(5233):53-9.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Author address: 〈/span〉Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory, Palisades, NY 10964, USA.〈br /〉〈span class="detail_caption"〉Record origin:〈/span〉 〈a href="http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/7569951" target="_blank"〉PubMed〈/a〉
Keywords:
Africa
;
Animals
;
*Biological Evolution
;
*Climate
;
*Fossils
;
*Geologic Sediments
;
*Hominidae
;
Humans
Print ISSN:
0036-8075
Electronic ISSN:
1095-9203
Topics:
Biology
,
Chemistry and Pharmacology
,
Computer Science
,
Medicine
,
Natural Sciences in General
,
Physics
Permalink
