The Eocene Epoch lasted from 55.8 to 33.9 million years ago. It was the second Epoch of five, in the Tertiary Period. It was known for it’s tropical climate and first appearance of mammals, both on land and sea. Typically, The Eocene is split into three parts: Early, Middle, and Late epochs. In the earliest trimester, 55.8 million to 47.8 million years ago, rainforests and swamps dominated the land; the average temperature year round was near ninety degrees fahrenheit- with little fluctuation from the equator to the north and south poles. This would mean there was no, to minute amounts of ice anywhere on Earth at this time. As a result, methane was being released into the atmosphere nearly three times more saturated than today’s levels, along with nearly double the amount of oxygen.
Given that, the breakdown of methane in an oxygen-rich atmosphere creates carbon monoxide, along with water vapor, and infrared radiation. However, carbon monoxide is not stable and will become carbon dioxide, in a short amount of time. Additionally, this process releases more infrared radiation. Infrared radiation, for the most part, is invisible and comes off as heat; you can experiment with this by putting
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These whales had well developed limbs, but were aquatic. However, unlike land mammals, this species did not have the vertebrae in the pelvis fused together into a sacrum. Early whales, such as Pakicetus, show many of the same features and qualities as an early group of land mammals known as mesonychids, which are also close to hoofed mammals like the Eohippus! In fact, some fossilized teeth that were identified at one point as mesonychids (large carnivorous land mammals) are now known to have come from archaeocetes (these primitive
Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs are closely related in their characteristics. Ceratopsians processed a saddle-shaped boney frill that extended from the skull to the neck and typically had horns over the nose and eyes. The most popular was the triceratops, which could reach over 26 feet and weigh in excess of twelve metric tons. Their frills served as two major functions. It protected the vulnerable neck from being harmed. The second major function that the frill provided was due to the fact that the frill contained a network of blood vessels on its underside, which were used as a means to get rid of excess heat. The Pachycephalosaurs were considered to be bipedal. They were also found to have thick skulls, flattened bodies, and tail that were covered in an array of body rods. Pachycephalosaurs were thought to have been more than fifteen feet long and processed a skull that was surrounded by a rounded dome of solid bone. It was thought that they used their heads in combat or mating contests, but that was disproved fairly recently, which I will discuss later in the paper. Both Ceratopsians and Pachycephalosaurs were “bird-hipped” and both of these suborders contained a backwards pubic bone. Both were Marginocephilia, or “fringed heads”, which is one of three clads under the Orinthiscia order. They were also herbivore dinosaurs that inherited their fringe at the back of the skull from earlier ancestors.(2) Their classi...
If you were to live during the tertiary period, this would be one of the things you would often see. All of the mammals that existed during that time period were terrestrial. They all were land dwelling mammals. Before J. G. M. Thewissen and colleagues’ discovery in Pakistan, many scientists believed, since the constant new discoveries twenty years ago, in what the numerous fossils from North America, Pakistan, and Egypt have revealed, “…these early cetaceans had mobile elbows and external hind limbs with articulated knees. However, they were fully aquatic, except for Ambulocetus, which was amphibious-much like sea lions” (Walking with Whales).
...ould estimate where they spent most of their time. By the length of the other skeletal bones, the size and shape of the animals could be determined, which also shared insight to its behavior. The largest primitive whales could indeed walk on land, but only did so for short periods because their legs could not take so much weight for long amounts of time. These behaviors allow scientists and paleontologists to understand even more as to how these fascinating and mysterious animals went from ruling on land to taking over the sea.
The emission of carbon dioxide has contributed to 80% to the heating of the earth atmosphere. Carbon dioxide is produced due the burning of fossil fuels such as natural gas, coal and oil. The burning of fossil fuel is very important in our society today, because it is used for cooking, used to produce electricity, for heating, for cooling and also for transportation. The industrialization has led to the use of fossil fuel for running machines and driving cars. The building of fossil fuel contributes towards 80-90% of the carbon dioxide we find in our atmosphere today. When the ecosystems are altered and vegetation is either burned or took out, the carbon stored in them is relinquished to the atmosphere as carbon dioxide (What causes global climate change, 2005). Methane is another gas being produced in the process which all have served to increase the greenhouse effect in our atmosphere. Methane is produced from the cultivation of rice, from the burning of coal and from cattle, it has increased by 145% due to human
The Permian Period was the last period of the Paleozoic Era. During this geological time period’s earlier stages glaciation was extensive. Middle Permian began to warm, and by the late Permian the environment was hot and dry. The environmental conditions were so extreme that the marine and terrestrial life forms were greatly affected. According to research the drastic climate change could have been caused by the formation of Pangaea. In 1912 Alfred Wegener while studying his theory of the continental drift, discovered Pangaea’s very existence. A combination of all of Earth’s landmasses joined together and covered 1/3 of Earth’s surface. Pangaea was f...
Carbon dioxide or CO2 is known to be one of a number of gases that are astonishingly transparent to the visible light that falls on the Earth from the Sun, but it absorb the infra-red radiation that emitted by the warm surface of our Earth, to prevents its loss into space. Moreover, CO2 has varied considerably and this affected the Earth’s temperature. Most common source of this CO2 is known as the fossil fuel. Fossil fuels are primarily coal, hydrocarbons, natural gas, or fuel oil that formed from the remains of the dead plants and also animals. The burning fossil fuel that has been created by humans is the largest source of emissions of the carbon dioxide.
A whole lot of hypotheses have been used to explain the quick expansion of animal species in the early Cambrian period about from about 541.0 million to about 485.4 million years ago. The most modern explanations for the Cambrian explosion takes pieces of a lot of these hypotheses and melds them together; incorporating genetic, ecologic, abiotic conditions that set the evolutionary wheel in motion. The current state of understanding the Cambrian explosion still remains a topic of open and exciting debate. The processes in the hypotheses can be stand-alone or very tightly interconnected and mutually supporting of another. One can say the complexity of modern Animalia can be attributed to the complexity of the processes that happened during the rapid diversification attributed from an interaction of biotic and abiotic processes in the Cambrian period.
recognizable evidence for animals was discovered in Oman, this discovery revealed small sea sponges that were alive approximately 635 million years ago.” -Oldest fossil evidence for animals found. Nearing 443 million years ago occurred the third largest extinction in Earth’s history the Ordovician-Silurian extinction, during this extraordinary event almost 85% of all sea life had been wiped out. Preceding this event a giant formation of ice was collecting in the southern hemisphere. It was proposed that this sheet of ice had lowered sea levels and messed with ocean chemistry.
Again, index fossils and relative dating are the proof of the creatures that inhabited the Earth during this period. Even though there was an explosion of marine life, sixty percent of the species became extinct due to climatic changes and glaciation. After the Ordovician period is the Silurian period (440-410mya), which is best known for life on land. Once the climate stabilized, land plants grew near the equator and the evolution of fishes began.
The main gasses that we recognize as 'greenhouse gasses' are carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Carbon dioxide, being the most well known, comes from a variety of places include natural causes and man made causes,
Humpback whales breath voluntarily, unlike humans. Since they have to remember to breath, researchers believe humpbacks sleep by shutting off half of their brain at a time. Like orcas and dolphins, humpback whales have noses at the top of their head called blowholes (Animal Planet). Humpback whale calves do not stop growing until they are ten years old (National Geographic). They breed, give birth and care for their newborn calves in the warm waters of Tonga. Instead of teeth, humpbacks have baleen plates, they are brush-like strands of bristle that trap there food until it is swallowed. They have very odd mouths that curve downwards, like an eternal frown. Humpback whales are amazing marine mammals (Big Animal Expeditions)
Tertiary period started about 70 million years ago. It was the start of the "era of mammals". It produced adaptive emission in the mammals. Extinction of many reptilian lineages also persent in this period.
In regards of greenhouse gasses in Titan’s atmosphere, Methane makes a very capable and effective greenhouse gas . Methane, which is transparent in UV and visible spectral regions, displays absorption bands which complements Titan’s infrared emission spectrum. The cycle of methane on Titan is still a mystery and needs further research gain more understanding, however it seems to be very similar to of water on Earth. Also another efficient greenhouse gas is Molecular hydrogen, which also absorbs the infrared and enact a similar role to Methane. Many answered questions was aided by the Cassini Huygens mission which was developed by NASA and ESA. In Titan’s atmospheric pressure-temperature conditions, it is possible to condense methane but not possible to condense molecular hydrogen. Thus, on Titan, methane and ...
...stocene epoch, we find that the temperature cools by four to ten degrees every 40,000 to 100,000 years and then warms back up again.
The carbon dioxide, also known as a greenhouse gas, remains in the air trapping heat and gradually warming the planet. Other greenhouse gases such as: methane, nitrous oxide, and water vapor also contribute to this slow warming. According to Live Science, The state of these gases being trapped is called the greenhouse effect, which is one of the leading causes of global warming (Lallanillia). All the gases are created differently and have different effects on the earth.