Comments on: After the End Permian Mass Extinction

By: Travis

Travis — Mon, 23 Jul 2012 01:37:37 +0000

Perhaps some of the thoughts on ininoatvon are spurred by the same optimism which inspired the works of the early science fiction writers. We tend to imagine that the future will manifest what we desire today. If it turns out that future generations don’t want the same things well how could our predictions plan for that?Speaking of the Anglo-centric (and actually it’s more specifically UK-centric. Most likely owing to the fact that the author resides in the UK) slant, I agree with the last too commentators that much future progress will move away from the current Euro-centric paradigm. We may see India’s rise to global leader much faster than we realize. This obviously under the assumption that the nation doesn’t collapse under the weight of their own struggles. Also rising in global influence are Persian Gulf nations such as Kuwait, Qatar and most spectacularly the United Arab Emirates (see Dubai). In fact, we’re already witnessing greater cooperation between the Gulf states and South Asia. If India and the UAE were to foment their relationship into something on par with NAFTA, we’d quickly see a consolodation of world power in the Near East. But even then, they’d need some time to grow before their cultural influence eclipsed that of the EU or the USA.

By: Will Baird

Will Baird — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:21:33 +0000

Brian (laelaps),I’m going to do a bio comparison of the KT/PT events after I get the post on the KT extinction done. That’s going to be a bit though. There has been nontrivial work about the recoveries of each though. Sarda’s is very, very good (I got the paper).

By: _Arthur

_Arthur — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 15:11:27 +0000

“The global diversity rose sharply after each extinction pulse, probably the result of disaster taxa filling empty guilds. “What is a guild ? Is it like an ecological niche ?

By: BrianR

BrianR — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:55:55 +0000

Cool stuff ... a prof at Stanford University, Jon Payne, also works on earliest Triassic paleobio. See his papers here.I saw this post over on researchbogging.org under the "Anthropology" category, which is wrong ... just an FYI :)

By: Laelaps

Laelaps — Wed, 23 Jan 2008 14:32:02 +0000

I saw this one too last week and didn't think anyone was going to get to it; I guess I was wrong! Now what really would be interesting would be a comparison of, say, recovery after the Permian event and the end-Cretaceous event.Still, in terms of what was discussed in the paper, the Permian extinction always struck me as rather interesting in that Lystrosaurus turned up everywhere and eventually was wiped out, the great turnover in biodiversity that included the evolution of the dinosaurs not occurring until much later. Now that there's a little better idea of what happened when, I'd hope to see more research going into why biodiversity took the time it did to recover in the late Triassic.Also, Sarda writes the blog Fish Feet and has a short piece on the paper here.