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Phanerozoic Life and Mass Extinctions of Species

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Climate, Fire and Human Evolution

Part of the book series: Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences ((MASE,volume 10))

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Abstract

Early conflicts between uniformitarian and gradual theories of evolution (James Hutton 1726–1797; Charles Lyell 1797–1875) and catastrophic theory (Georges Cuvier 1769–1832) have been progressively resolved by advanced paleontological, sedimentary, volcanic and asteroid impact studies and by paleo-climate studies coupled with precise isotopic age determinations, indicating periods of gradual evolution were interrupted by abrupt events which have transformed the habitat of plants and organisms and resulted in mass extinction of species. Detailed investigations of the carbon, oxygen and sulphur cycles using a range of proxies, including leaf pore stomata, δ13C, δ34S and 87/86Sr isotopes, as well as geochemical mass balance modeling, provide detailed evidence of major trends as well as distinct events in the atmosphere–ocean-land system during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras (542–65 Ma), including greenhouse Earth periods (CO2 ~ 2,000–5,000 ppm) and glacial phases (CO2 < 500 ppm), with implications for biological evolution. The Cenozoic era includes four components (A) post K-T impact warming culminating with the Paleocene-Eocene hyperthermal at ~55 Ma; (B) long term cooling ending with a sharp temperature plunge toward formation of the Antarctic ice sheet from 32 Ma; (C) a post-32 Ma era dominated by the Antarctic ice sheet, including limited thermal rises in the end-Oligocene, mid-Miocene and end-Pliocene, and (D) Pleistocene glacial-interglacial cycles. Hominin evolution in Africa occurred during a transition from tropical to dry climates punctuated by alternating periods of extreme orbital forcing-induced glacial-interglacial cycles, suggesting variability selection of Hominins.

Falling Star

For an infinitely long second, nascent

Your tail plots a crescent, a fiery arc

From a star-spangled sky incandescent

To the fast sleeping Earth, in the dark

Your grave for all time.

Who are you, friend or foe, stranger

Fragment fallen by a space highway

Of the asteroid belt, posing danger

Or some orbit-decayed fancy hardware

Of fatal star wars fleets?

Are you a harbinger of good news

Or signal dire distress

For this embattled Earth, in its blues

Will your fleeting torch impress

A new truth?

Will you plunge way beyond yonder

Or fall here, close by my side

On this red desert dune, I wonder

Stranded tonight, wide eyed

In awe, without faith?

(By Andrew Glikson)

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  1. School of Archaeology and Anthropology, Australian National University, Canberra, ACT, Australia

    Andrew Y. Glikson & Colin Groves

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Glikson, A.Y., Groves, C. (2016). Phanerozoic Life and Mass Extinctions of Species. In: Climate, Fire and Human Evolution. Modern Approaches in Solid Earth Sciences, vol 10. Springer, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-22512-8_2

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