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Beginning of animal evolution. [54] [55] 720–630 Ma Possible global glaciation [56] [57] which increased the atmospheric oxygen and decreased carbon dioxide, and was either caused by land plant evolution [58] or resulted in it. [59] Opinion is divided on whether it increased or decreased biodiversity or the rate of evolution. [60] [61] [62 ...
The evolution of animals with backbones is one of the greatest stories in natural history. To tell this story, David presents explosive new fossil evidence from China, a region he has long dreamt of exploring and the frontier of modern paleontological research. This episode goes through how the vertebrates evolved and came onto land.
The history of life on Earth traces the processes by which living and extinct organisms evolved, from the earliest emergence of life to the present day. Earth formed about 4.5 billion years ago (abbreviated as Ga, for gigaannum) and evidence suggests that life emerged prior to 3.7 Ga. [1] [2] [3] The similarities among all known present-day species indicate that they have diverged through the ...
Figure 1:In mammals, the quadrate and articular bones are small and part of the middle ear; the lower jaw consists only of dentary bone.. While living mammal species can be identified by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands in the females, other features are required when classifying fossils, because mammary glands and other soft-tissue features are not visible in fossils.
Convergent evolution—the repeated evolution of similar traits in multiple lineages which all ancestrally lack the trait—is rife in nature, as illustrated by the examples below. The ultimate cause of convergence is usually a similar evolutionary biome , as similar environments will select for similar traits in any species occupying the same ...
Evolution of fish – Origin and diversification of fish through geologic time; Evolution of insects – Development of insects from an ancestral crustacean and their subsequent radiation Evolution of butterflies – Origin and diversification of butterflies through geologic time; Peppered moth evolution – Significance of the peppered moth in ...
This change made them look very similar to modern elephants, an example of parallel evolution. During the Pliocene and Early Pleistocene, the diversity of gomphotheres declined, ultimately becoming extinct outside of the Americas.
The Pyrenean ibex (Capra pyrenaica pyrenaica) is an Iberian ibex subspecies with the unfortunate distinction of being the first animal to go extinct twice. Endemic to the Pyrenees and Cantabrian Mountains, this ibex was driven to extinction by the year 2000 due to competition with livestock and introduced wild ungulates and following the death of Celia, the endling of the subspecies.