Thursday, August 27, 2020

Lie-down-til-its-safe-o-saurus

h/t hbdchick: Sleeping through the P/T. Lystrosaurus, one of them Mammal-Like Reptiles. Often cited as the winners of this event, "when pigs ruled the earth". Pre-Carnian.

On sawing through their tusks, their ivory turns out to be ringed. These specimens lived far to the south - even past the Antarctic Circle. And in fact some fossils are found in what we call Antarctica today.

The early Triassic was warm - there was assuredly enough carbon-dioxide - but, as the article points out, the Earth was tilted the same, so had the same seasons. Shorter days but the same year (so more days per year). Even if it doesn't snow too hard the winters are still dark and trees don't grow.

The article implies that some animals had already learnt to hibernate through the worst winters. An animal like that would interpret the Great Dying as "winter" and react accordingly. They survived; the trilobite did not.

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