Researchers discover unknown mass extinction event in Africa

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Compiling decades of work, a new study published this week in the journal Communications Biology reports on a previously undocumented extinction event that followed the transition between the geological periods called the Eocene and Oligocene.

That time period was marked by dramatic climate change. In a reverse image of what is happening today, the Earth grew cooler, ice sheets expanded, sea levels dropped, forests started changing to grasslands, and carbon dioxide became scarce.

Nearly two-thirds of the species known in Europe and Asia at that time went extinct.

Thanks in great part to a large collection of fossils housed at the Duke Lemur Center Division of Fossil Primates (DLCDFP), researchers have shown that, despite their relatively balmy environment, African mammals were just as affected as those from Europe and Asia. 

“We see a huge loss in tooth diversity, and then a recovery period with new dental shapes and new adaptations,” said de Vries.

“Extinction is interesting in that way,” said Matt Borths, curator of Duke University’s DLCDFP and coauthor of the paper. “It kills things, but it also opens up new ecological opportunities for the lineages that survive into this new world.”

Source - https://www.heritagedaily.com/2021/10/researchers-uncover-a-previously-unknown-mass-extinction-event-in-africa/141615

[Guest]

everything happened in Africa

[Shaney 5,515]

That is amazing.

There is so much to be discovered in Africa. Only 1% of all published scientific reports come from Africa, and it's a shame. 

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On 10/12/2021 at 7:43 PM, KanyeWest said:

everything happened in Africa

This extinction is known to have affected the entire the world but they thought it it skipped Africa.