TOPICS:DinosaursEvolutionHarvard UniversityPaleontologyReptiles

By HARVARD UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF ORGANISMIC AND EVOLUTIONARY BIOLOGY AUGUST 20, 2022

Artistic reconstruction of the reptile adaptive radiation in a terrestrial ecosystem during the warmest period in Earth’s history. Image depicts a massive, big-headed, carnivorous erythrosuchid (close relative to crocodiles and dinosaurs) and a tiny gliding reptile at about 240 million years ago. The erythrosuchid is chasing the gliding reptile and it is propelling itself using a fossilized skull of the extinct Dimetrodon (early mammalian ancestor) in a hot and dry river valley. Credit: Image created by Henry Sharpe

Harvard researchers find rapid evolution of reptiles was triggered by nearly 60 million years of global warming and climate change.

Researchers can explore the impact of environmental crises on organismal evolution by studying climate change-induced mass extinctions in the deep geological past. One principal example…