Earth Sciences 2266F/G Lecture Notes - Lecture 29: Uintatherium, Isthmus Of Panama, Gulf Stream
26 Jul 2016
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Document Summary
Placental mammal explosion: all ancestors just came out at the same time more or less. Not too long after their appearance, gigantism started led by herbivores (e. g. uintatherium: rhino-sized herbivore) Most mammal evolution occurred on land and remained on land (not whales, etc. ); there is co- evolution between expansion of grassland and learning how to eat grass in herbivores. But also have to grow bigger and run faster in order not to be eaten in the barren grassland with no cover. Carnivores: in dinosaurs, predators like t. rex was much bigger than the prey. But not for mammals; in terms of mammal size, mammal predators are always smaller than the herbivores (e. g. lion and elephant) Carnivores found a way to take down herbivores. Any time there is a major change, the beginning of the evolutionary pathway appears very quickly (in terms of mode of life), and then as it evolves species are just fine-tuning those evolutionary features.
