World’s biggest snake lived in first “modern” rain forest 60 mln yrs ago

A new study has suggested that the world’s biggest snake lived in the
earliest known “modern” rain forest some 60 million years ago.

According
to a report in National Geographic News, the study is based on more
than 2,000 fossil leaves recently discovered in Colombia’s Cerrejon
coal mine-the same place where scientists had found fossils of
Titanoboa cerrejonesis earlier this year.

Many of the newfound
plant fossils are of palm, legume, and flowering species that still
dominate South America’s rain forests, according to study team member
Scott Wing, a paleontologist at the Smithsonian’s National Museum of
Natural History in Washington, D.C.

“That was kind of
surprising,” Wing said. “What we’re seeing here is the first modern
rain forest that we have any record of,” he added.

Based on the
fossil leaves, scientists think Titanoboa’s rain forest was a few
degrees warmer and contained fewer plant species than the modern
version.

This lower diversity could be evidence that the ancient
forests were still recovering from the catastrophic event that killed
off the dinosaurs some five million years earlier, according to the
scientists.

The team thinks that a dino-killer asteroid may have
struck several hundred miles away from Colombia, in what is now
Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula.

Such an impact could have triggered forest fires and worldwide climate change.

In
fact, pollen fossils from before the impact show that South America’s
dino-era forests were dramatically different from the tropical rain
forests Titanoboa called home.

The plant species that existed
alongside the world’s largest snake were so successful that many of
them survived to the modern day.

என் பதிவை நீக்குங்கள்

நவீன் wrote:என் பதிவை நீக்குங்கள்

ஆங்கிலப் பதிவுகளுக்கு தனியாக ஒரு இடம் ஒதுக்கலாமா என சிந்தித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கிறேன்! அதற்கு உறவுகளின் பதில் என்ன?

ஆங்கிலப் பதிவுகளுக்கு தனியாக ஒரு இடம்

நன்று

சிவா wrote:

நவீன் wrote:என் பதிவை நீக்குங்கள்

ஆங்கிலப் பதிவுகளுக்கு தனியாக ஒரு இடம் ஒதுக்கலாமா என சிந்தித்துக் கொண்டிருக்கிறேன்! அதற்கு உறவுகளின் பதில் என்ன?