Long-period astronomical forcing of mammal turnover

Jan A. van Dam (), Hayfaa Abdul Aziz, M. Ángeles Álvarez Sierra, Frederik J. Hilgen, Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende, Lucas J. Lourens, Pierre Mein, Albert J. van der Meulen and Pablo Pelaez-Campomanes
Additional contact information
Jan A. van Dam: Utrecht University
Hayfaa Abdul Aziz: Utrecht University
M. Ángeles Álvarez Sierra: José Antonio Novais 2, Complutense University, Ciudad Universitaria
Frederik J. Hilgen: Utrecht University
Lars W. van den Hoek Ostende: National Museum of Natural History, Naturalis
Lucas J. Lourens: Utrecht University
Pierre Mein: University of Lyon I
Albert J. van der Meulen: Utrecht University
Pablo Pelaez-Campomanes: National Museum of Natural History, CSIC, Department of Paleobiology

Nature, 2006, vol. 443, issue 7112, 687-691

Abstract: Your time is up Mammalian species seem to have a set time on this Earth, enjoying a stay of about 2.5 million years before extinction. That species should have such characteristic life expectancy is puzzling. A study of a very long (22-million-year) and detailed sequence of rodent fossils from Spain suggests that species appearances and disappearances are concentrated in 'turnover events' that occur at regular intervals of about 1.0 and 2.4 million years. The duration and timing of these periods corresponds to that of variations in the Earth–Sun distance and the tilt of the Earth's axis thought responsible for Milankovitch climatic cycles. A link to climate is consistent with the 'turnover pulse' hypothesis proposed in 1985 by Yale palaeontologist Elisabeth Vrba, which explains species survival times by assuming that species remain stable until environmental change triggers rapid bursts of extinction and speciation.

Date: 2006
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DOI: 10.1038/nature05163

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