Ellesmere Island in the Canadian Arctic is a treeless, rocky, and very cold wilderness, largely covered by thick glaciers. But about 52 million years ago, it had dense forests and a humid climate similar to what is now Savannah, Georgia. And now, fossil discoveries have revealed that it was inhabited by her two newly identified species of primate-like mammals. pro swanThe success of these animals in establishing themselves in the rapidly warming Arctic of the past allows scientists to better understand how species change in the current human-induced climate emergency. It might help you understand.
Fossils date back to the early Eocene, when ancient relatives of many modern mammals, including tapirs, hippos, and humans, lived on Earth.One of our own long lost families from this era is the now extinct genus Ignatius subject of new research. “We don’t know the exact location yet.” Ignatius Kristen Miller, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Kansas and lead author of the study, says it fits in with modern primates. But scientists do know that these creatures fall somewhere in a broader group that includes primates and primate-like animals such as lemurs. In an example artistic depiction of Miller, Ignatius—first made for this genus—you’d be forgiven for thinking you were looking at a squirrel.
many Ignatius The two species described by Miller and her colleagues are the first species discovered in the Arctic.Currently dubbed mammal specimens Ignatius McKenna When Ignatius Dawson It was collected from Ellesmere Island in the 1970s by pioneering paleontologist Mary Dawson. However, it has never been formally described or understood to be an undiscovered species.
The fossils Miller and her colleagues used in their research include many teeth and some jawbones, but unfortunately no complete skeleton.Yet it is clear I. McKennai When I. dawsonae An evolved trait not found in its low-latitude cousins. These differences helped the two species cope with a temperate but still uniquely challenging Arctic environment, said study co-author Christopher He Beard, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Kansas. says.Adaptations include teeth with rough surfaces, “like if you took a bed sheet and crinkled it all up.” I. McKennai When I. dawsonae It feeds on hard seeds, bark, etc., but this was the only type of food available during the notorious Arctic winter darkness, during which green plants and insects were not abundant. Seeds are also much larger than other species Ignatius Species – Arctic animals tend to be larger than their relatives in warmer climates, as their larger volume relative to surface area helps them retain heat, which is in line with the trend. Even the poles were colder than the equator.
The presence of these two people is irresistible Ignatius Ellesmere Island species are also of interest to scientists is not Found there — and why. “There are some really interesting absences,” says Miller. “early horses, Hyracotherium, is abundant in mid-latitudes. But you can’t reach the North Pole. Other absent animals include an early ungulate mammal called Condylarus. Ignatiusthe closest relatives of Despite being common elsewhere in the world, no other “primates or relatives of primates have been found” on Ellesmere Island, notes Beard. animals were able to colonize with Eocene Arctic warming, but “not everyone can.”
Knowing how species responded to past warming events is invaluable as global temperatures are rising faster than scientists can find in the fossil record, says Colorado. says Jaelyn Eberle, a vertebrate paleontologist at the University of Boulder’s Museum of Natural History. He provided specimens and comments for the study, but was not directly involved in the study. “To predict how biota will change in the ice-free Arctic” (which could occur as early as the summer of 2035), she says, “examine these historical intervals. The exact characteristics that allow the species to migrate to the warmer Arctic are still a mystery, but Eberle’s ability to eat a wide variety of foods is one characteristic that facilitates migration. suggests.
Asked when more species will be able to successfully migrate to the Arctic, Beard says it’s already happening. “Red foxes are well established in the Arctic, outdoing Arctic foxes,” he says. As climate change sets animals on fire and drives them northward, with extinction, “colonization, diversification and adaptation will all take place and all will become incredibly dynamic”. We hope that by studying how ecosystems have changed in the past, we can gain a little more understanding of what we might be doing in the future.
