About 56 million years ago, when the country experienced a dramatic increase in global temperatures, one mammal consuming the meat surprisingly responded: he started eating more bones.
This is the conclusion that a team of scientists led by Rutgers, whose recent study of fossil teeth from the extinct predator Dissacus prognosis It reveals how animals adapted to the period of extreme climate change known as the paleocene-eocene thermal maximum (PETM). Finding, published in the magazine Palaeogeography, paleoclimatology, paleoecologyHe could help scientists to predict how today’s wild game could respond to modern global warming.
“What happened during PETM is very reflected in what is happening today and what will happen in the future,” said Andrew Schwartz, a doctoral student at the School of Arts and Sciences, who led research. “We see the same patterns. Carbon dioxide levels are growing, temperatures are higher and ecosystems are disturbed.”
The study co -author of the study is Associate Professor Robert Scott from the Anthropology Department.
Schwartz, Scott and other colleagues used a technique called analysis of dental micro textures to study small pit and scratches that remained on fossilized teeth. These brands reveal what kinds of food the animal chewed in weeks before death.
The ancient Omnivore was about the size of the jackal or the coyote and probably consumed a mixture of meat and other food sources such as fruit and insects. “They looked superficial like wolves with excessive heads,” Schwartz said, describing them as “super strange mammals”. “Their teeth were like hyenas. But on each of their feet they had little little hooves.”
Before this period of growing temperatures, Diseacus He had a diet similar to modern cheetahs and ate mostly hard meat. During and after this ancient period, however, his teeth showed signs of harsh materials such as bones.
“We found that their dental microwave looked more like lions and hyenas,” Schwartz said. “This suggests that they ate more fragile food, which was probably bone, because their usual prey was less or less accessible.”
This shifting of the diet has occurred, along with a modest reduction in body size, probably due to lack of food. While earlier hypotheses accused shrinking animals only at warmer temperatures, this latest research suggests that limited food has played a larger role, Schwartz said.
This period of rapid global warming took about 200,000 years, but the changes that launched were fast and dramatic. Schwartz said that a study about the past, such as his, can offer practical lessons today and what will happen next.
“One of the best ways to know what will happen in the future is to look back at the past,” he said. “How have animals changed? How did ecosystems react?”
The findings also emphasize the importance of diet flexibility, he said. Animals that can eat different foods are more likely to survive environmental stress.
“In the short term, it’s great to be the best in what you do,” Schwartz said. “But in the long run it is risky. Municipalities, which means animals that are good in many ways, are more likely to survive when the environment changes.”
Such an insight can be useful for modern biologists for nature protection, allowing them to find out which species can be the most vulnerable today, he said. Animals with narrow foods such as pandas can fight because their habitats are shrinking. However, adaptable species, including jackals or raccoon, could be better useful.
“We can see it is happening,” Schwartz said. “In my earlier research, jackal began to eat more bones and insects over time, probably because of the loss of habitats and climatic stress.”
The study also showed that rapid climate warming, as observed during the ancient past, can lead to major changes in ecosystems, including changes in available prey and changes in predators’ behavior. This may indicate that a modern climate change could similarly disrupt the food network and force animals to adapt or risk extinction, he said.
Even if Diseacus It was a successful and adaptable animal that lived for about 15 million years, eventually it disappeared. Scientists think that this happened because of changes in the environment and competition of other animals, Schwartz said.
Schwartz conducted its research through a combination of field work and laboratory analysis focusing on fossil samples from the Bigorn basin in Wyoming, on a place with a rich and continuous fossil record lasting millions of years. Schwartz chose a location because during the ancient climate warming period it retains a detailed sequence of environmental and environmental changes.
Schwartz was interested in paleontology, specifically dinosaurs, because he was a boy, traveled with his father, an amateur fossil hunter, treks across the rivers and streams of New Jersey. Now, as a doctoral student at a late stage, he hopes to use ancient fossils to answer the urgent question about the future.
He also wants to inspire the next generation of scientists.
“I like to share this job,” he said. “If I see a child in the museum looking at dinosaur, I say,” Hey, I’m a paleontologist. You can do it too. “
In addition to Schwartz and Scott, he is the author of the study of Larisa Desantis of Vanderbilt University.
