A New History of Life

by Peter Ward

  5. W. J. Hillenius and J. A. Ruben, “The Evolution of Endothermy in Terrestrial Vertebrates: Who? When? Why?” Physiological and Biochemical Zoology 77, no. 6 (2004): 1019–1042. The work of Greg Erickson is also essential: G. M. Erickson et al., “Tyrannosaur Life Tables: An Example of Nonavian Dinosaur Population Biology,” Science 313, no. 5784 (2006): 213–17; whereas the important career work of de Ricqlès is summarized in A. de Ricqlès et al., “On the Origin of High Growth Rates in Archosaurs and their Ancient Relatives: Complementary Histological Studies on Triassic Archosauriforms and the Problem of a ‘Phylogenetic Signal’ in Bone Histology,” Annales de Paléontologie 94, no. 2 (2008): 57.

  6. K. Carpenter, Eggs, Nests, and Baby Dinosaurs: A Look at Dinosaur Reproduction (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2000).

  CHAPTER XV: THE GREENHOUSE OCEANS: 200–65 MA

  1. R. Takashima, “Greenhouse World and the Mesozoic Ocean,” Oceanography 19, no. 4 (2006): 82–92.

  2. A. S. Gale, “The Cretaceous World,” in S. J. Culver and P. F. Raqson, eds., Biotic Response to Global Change: The Last 145 Million Years (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006), 4–19.

  3. T. J. Bralower et al., “Dysoxic-Anoxic Episodes in the Aptian-Albian (Early Cretaceous),” in The Mesozoic Pacific: Geology, Tectonics and Volcanism, M. S. Pringle et al., eds. (Washington, D.C.: American Geophysical Union, 1993), 5–37.

  4. B. T. Huber et al., “Deep-Sea Paleotemperature Record of Extreme Warmth During the Cretaceous,” Geology 30 (2002): 123–26; A. H. Jahren, “The Biogeochemical Consequences of the Mid-Cretaceous Superplume,” Journal of Geodynamics 34 (2002): 177–91; I. Jarvis et al., “Microfossil Assemblages and the Cenomanian-Turonian (Late Cretaceous) Oceanic Anoxic Event,” Cretaceous Research 9 (1988): 3–103. The work on heteromorphic ammonites including buoyancy has been conducted by Ward and many colleagues around the world. Ammonoid Paleobiology, Neil Landman et al., eds. (Springer, 1996), is an excellent introduction. The orientation of Baculites was ascertained using scale wax models, in P. Ward, Ph.D. thesis, McMaster University, Ontario Canada, 1976.

  5. The wonderful study (one of many!) by Neil Landman and his colleagues was discussed in N. H. Landman et al., “Methane Seeps as Ammonite Habitats in the U.S. Western Interior Seaway Revealed by Isotopic Analyses of Well-preserved Shell Material,” Geology 40, no. 6 (2012): 507. Other new findings by this group were reported in N. H. Landman et al., “The Role of Ammonites in the Mesozoic Marine Food Web Revealed by Jaw Preservation,” Science 331, no. 6013 (2011): 70–72, showing for the first time the feeding mechanisms of baculitid ammonites as well as insight into their food sources.

  6. Ibid.

  7. G. J. Vermeij, “The Mesozoic Marine Revolution: Evidence from Snails, Predators and Grazers,” Palaeobiology 3 (1977): 245–58.

  8. S. M. Stanley, “Predation Defeats Competition on the Seafloor,” Paleobiology 34, no. 1 (2008): 1–21.

  9. T. Baumiller et al., “Post-Paleozoic Crinoid Radiation in Response to Benthic Predation Preceded the Mesozoic Marine Revolution,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 107, no. 13 (2010): 5893–96.

  10. T. Oji, “Is Predation Intensity Reduced with Increasing Depth? Evidence from the West Atlantic Stalked Crinoid Endoxocrinus parrae (Gervais) and Implications for the Mesozoic Marine Revolution,” Palaeobiology 22 (1996): 339–51.

  CHAPTER XVI: DEATH OF THE DINOSAURS: 65 MA

  1. L. W. Alvarez et al., “Extraterrestrial Cause for the Cretaceous-Tertiary Extinction,” Science 208, no. 4448 (1980): 1095. This was later followed by the discovery of the crater itself: A. R. Hildebrand et al., “Chicxulub Crater: A Possible Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Impact Crater on the Yucatán Peninsula, Mexico,” Geology 19 (1991): 867–71.

  2. P. Schulte et al. “The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary,” Science 327, no. 5970 (2005): 1214–18.

  3. J. Vellekoop et al., “Rapid Short-Term Cooling Following the Chicxulub Impact at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111, no 21 (2014): 7537–7541.

  4. Discussions of this site and the extinction pattern recorded there are in many references, but we rather presumptuously suggest P. Ward, Under a Green Sky: Global Warming, the Mass Extinctions of the Past, and What They Can Tell Us About Our Future (Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian, 2007).

  5. See also the excellent review by our colleague David Jablonski: D. Jablonski, “Extinctions in the Fossil Record (and Discussion),” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B 344, 1307 (1994): 11–17.

  6. D. M. Raup and D. Jablonski, “Geography of End-Cretaceous Marine Bivalve Extinctions,” Science 260, 5110 (1993): 971–73. P. M. Sheehan and D. E. Fastovsky, “Major Extinctions of Land-Dwelling Vertebrates at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary, Eastern Montana,” Geology 20 (1992): 556–60; R. K. Bambach et al., “Origination, Extinction, and Mass Depletions of Marine Diversity,” Paleobiology 30, no. 4 (2004): 522–42. D. J. Nichols and K. R. Johnson, Plants and the K–T Boundary (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008); P. Ward et al., “Ammonite and Inoceramid Bivalve Extinction Patterns in Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary Sections of the Biscay Region (Southwestern France, Northern Spain),” Geology 19, no. 12 (1991): 1181–84; but see the dissenting N. MacLeod et al., “The Cretaceous-Tertiary Biotic Transition,” Journal of the Geological Society 154, no. 2 (1997): 265–92.

  Also see P. Shulte et al., “The Chicxulub Asteroid Impact and Mass Extinction at the Cretaceous-Paleogene Boundary,” Science 327, no. 5970 (2010): 1214–18.

  7. V. Courtillot et al., “Deccan Flood Basalts at the Cretaceous-Tertiary Boundary?” Earth and Planetary Science Letters 80, nos. 3–4 (1986): 361–74; C. Moskowitz, “New Dino-Destroying Theory Fuels Hot Debate,” space.com, October 18, 2009.

  8. T. S. Tobin et al., “Extinction Patterns, d18O Trends, and Magnetostratigraphy from a Southern High-Latitude Cretaceous-Paleogene Section: Links with Deccan Volcanism,” Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 350–52 (2012): 180–88.

  CHAPTER XVII: THE LONG-DELAYED THIRD AGE OF MAMMALS: 65–50 MA

  1. The gold standard for vertebrate paleontology has long been Robert L. Carroll, Vertebrate Paleontology and Evolution (New York: W. H. Freeman and Company, 1988). New work on the evolution of what we call the third age of mammals in this book can be found in O. R. P. Bininda-Emonds et al. “The Delayed Rise of Present-Day Mammals,” Nature 446, no. 7135 (2007): 507–11; Z.-X. Luo et al., “A New Mammaliaform from the Early Jurassic and Evolution of Mammalian Characteristics,” Science 292, 5521 (2001): 1535–40.

  2. J. R. Wible et al., “Cretaceous Eutherians and Laurasian Origin for Placental Mammals Near the K-T Boundary,” Nature 447, no. 7147 (2007): 1003–6; M. S. Springer et al., “Placental Mammal Diversification and the Cretaceous–Tertiary Boundary,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 100, no. 3 (2002): 1056–61.

  3. K. Helgen, “The Mammal Family Tree,” Science 334, no. 6055 (2011): 458–59.

  4. Q. Ji et al., “The Earliest Known Eutherian Mammal,” Nature 416, no. 6883 (2002): 816–22.

  5. Z.-X. Luo et al., “A Jurassic Eutherian Mammal and Divergence of Marsupials and Placentals,” Nature 476, no. 7361 (2011): 442–45.

  6. K. Jiang, “Fossil Indicates Hairy, Squirrel-sized Creature Was Not Quite a Mammal,” UChicagoNews, August 7, 2013; C-F. Zhou, “A Jurassic Mammaliaform and the Earliest Mammalian Evolutionary Adaptations,” Nature 500 (2013): 163–67.

  7. Z.-X. Luo, “Transformation and Diversification in Early Mammal Evolution,” Nature 450, no. 7172 (2007): 1011–19.

  8. J. P. Kennett and L. D. Stott, “Abrupt Deep-Sea Warming, Palaeoceanographic Changes and Benthic Extinctions at the End of the Paleocene,” Nature 353 (1991): 225–29.

  9. U. Röhl et al., “New Chronology for the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum and Its Environmental Implications,” Geology 28, no. 10 (2000): 927–30; T.
Westerhold et al., “New Chronology for the Late Paleocene Thermal Maximum and Its Environmental Implications,” Palaeogeography, Paleoclimatology, Palaeoecology 257 (2008): 377–74.

  10. P. L. Koch et al., “Correlation Between Isotope Records in Marine and Continental Carbon Reservoirs Near the Palaeocene-Eocene Boundary,” Nature 358 (1992): 319–22.

  11. M. D. Hatch, “C(4) Photosynthesis: Discovery and Resolution,” Photosynthesis Research 73, nos. 1–3 (2002): 251–56.

  12. E. J. Edwards and S. A. Smith, “Phylogenetic Analyses Reveal the Shady History of C4 Grasses,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 107, nos. 6 (2010): 2532–37; C. P. Osborne and R. P. Freckleton, “Ecological Selection Pressures for C4 Photosynthesis in the Grasses,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 276, no. 1663 (2009): 1753–60.

  CHAPTER XVIII: THE AGE OF BIRDS: 50–2.5 MA

  1. A personal note to this chapter. One of us (Ward) has had two parrots as “pets,” although it is unclear who was the pet in the relationship between bird and human. What was clear, however, was the level of intelligence. And this is true not just of parrots. Anyone watching crows or other flocking birds can readily see a great and potentially evolving intelligence at work. We dismiss them as “bird brains.” Compare the size of a brain of an African gray parrot to that of our own, and then consider that these birds can speak in complete sentences, do math, are complex in behavior. We all want to hope the chickens we eat every day are stupid. Perhaps not.

  2. K. Padian and L. M. Chiappe, “Bird Origins,” in P. J. Currie and K.Padian, eds., Encyclopedia of Dinosaurs (San Diego: Academic Press, 1997), 41–96; J. Gauthier, “Saurischian Monophyly and the Origin of Birds,” in K. Padian, Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 8 (1986): 1–55; L. M. Chiappe, “Downsized Dinosaurs: The Evolutionary Transition to Modern Birds,” Evolution: Education and Outreach 2, no. 2 (2009): 248–56.

  3. J. H. Ostrom, “The Ancestry of Birds,” Nature 242, no. 5393 (1973): 136; J. Gauthier, “Saurischian Monophyly and the Origin of Birds,” in K. Padian, Memoirs of the California Academy of Sciences 8 (1986): 1–55; J. Cracraft, “The Major Clades of Birds,” in M. J. Benton, ed., The Phylogeny and Classification of the Tetrapods, Volume I: Amphibians, Reptiles, Birds (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1988), 339–61.

  4. A. Feduccia, “On Why the Dinosaur Lacked Feathers,” in M. K. Hecht et al., eds. The Beginnings of Birds: Proceedings of the International Archaeopteryx Conference Eichstatt 1984 (Eichstatt: Freunde des Jura-Museums Eichstatt, 1985), 75–79; A. Feduccia et al., “Do Feathered Dinosaurs Exist? Testing the Hypothesis on Neontological and Paleontological Evidence,” Journal of Morphology 266, no. 2 (2005): 125–66.

  5. J. O’Connor, “A Revised Look at Liaoningornis Longidigitris (Aves).” Vertebrata PalAsiatica 50 (2012): 25–37.

  6. A. Feduccia, “Explosive Evolution in Tertiary Birds and Mammals,” Science 267, no. 5198 (1995): 637–38; A. Feduccia, “Big Bang for Tertiary Birds?” Trends in Ecology and Evolution 18, no. 4 (2003): 172–76.

  7. M. Norell and M. Ellison, Unearthing the Dragon: The Great Feathered Dinosaur Discovery (New York: Pi Press, 2005); R. Prum, “Are Current Critiques of the Theropod Origin of Birds Science? Rebuttal to Feduccia 2002,” Auk 120, no. 2(2003): 550–61; S. Hope, “The Mesozoic Radiation of Neornithes,” in L. M. Chiappe et al., Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs (Oakland: University of California Press, 2002), 339–88; P. Ericson et al., “Diversification of Neoaves: Integration of Molecular Sequence Data and Fossils,” Biology Letters 2, no. 4 (2006): 543–47; K. Padian, “The Origin and Evolution of Birds by Alan Feduccia (Yale University Press, 1996),” American Scientist 85: 178–81; M. A. Norell et al., “Flight from Reason. Review of: The Origin and Evolution of Birds by Alan Feduccia (Yale University Press, 1996),” Nature 384, no. 6606 (1997): 230; L. M. Witmer, “The Debate on Avian Ancestry: Phylogeny, Function, and Fossils,” in L. M. Chiappe and L. M. Witmer, eds., Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 3–30.

  8. C. Pei-ji et al., “An Exceptionally Preserved Theropod Dinosaur from the Yixian Formation of China,” Nature 391, no. 6663 (1998): 147–52; G. S. Paul, Dinosaurs of the Air: The Evolution and Loss of Flight in Dinosaurs and Birds (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2002), 472; X. Xu et al., “An Archaeopteryx-like Theropod from China and the Origin of Avialae,” Nature 475 (2011): 465–70.

  9. D. Hu et al., “A Pre-Archaeopteryx Troodontid Theropod from China with Long Feathers on the Metatarsus,” Nature 461, no. 7264 (2009): 640–43; A. H. Turner et al., “A Basal Dromaeosaurid and Size Evolution Preceding Avian Flight,” Science 317, no. 5843 (2007): 1378–81; X. Xu et al., “Basal Tyrannosauroids from China and Evidence for Protofeathers in Tyrannosauroids,” Nature 431, 7009 (2004): 680–84; C. Foth, “On the Identification of Feather Structures in Stem-Line Representatives of Birds: Evidence from Fossils and Actuopalaeontology,” Paläontologische Zeitschrift 86, no. 1 (2012): 91–102; R. Prum and A. H. Brush, “The Evolutionary Origin and Diversification of Feathers,” Quarterly Review of Biology 77, no. 3 (2002): 261–95.

  10. M. H. Schweitzer et al., “Soft-Tissue Vessels and Cellular Preservation in Tyrannosaurus rex,” Science 307, no. 5717 (2005); C. Dal Sasso and M. Signore, “Exceptional Soft-Tissue Preservation in a Theropod Dinosaur from Italy,” Nature 392, no. 6674 (1998): 383–87; M. H. Schweitzer et al., “Heme Compounds in Dinosaur Trabecular Bone,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 94, no. 12 (1997): 6291–96.

  11. Dr. Paul Willis, “Dinosaurs and Birds: The Story,” The Slab, http://www.abc.net.au/science/slab/dinobird/story.htm.

  12. J. A. Clarke et al., “Insight into the Evolution of Avian Flight from a New Clade of Early Cretaceous Ornithurines from China and the Morphology of Yixianornis grabaui,” Journal of Anatomy 208 (3 (2006): 287–308.

  13. N. Brocklehurst et al., “The Completeness of the Fossil Record of Mesozoic Birds: Implications for Early Avian Evolution,” PLOS One (2012); J. A. Clarke et al., “Definitive Fossil Evidence for the Extant Avian Radiation in the Cretaceous,” Nature 433 (2005): 305–8.

  14. L. Witmer, “The Debate on Avian Ancestry: Phylogeny, Function and Fossils,” in L. Chiappe et al., eds., Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs (Berkeley, California: University of California Press, 2002), 3–30; L. M. Chiappe and G. J. Dyke, “The Mesozoic Radiation of Birds,” Annual Review of Ecology and Systematics 33 (2002): 91–124; J. W. Brown et al., “Strong Mitochondrial DNA Support for a Cretaceous Origin of Modern Avian Lineages,” BMC Biology 6 (2008): 1–18; J. Cracraft, “Avian Evolution, Gondwana Biogeography and the Cretaceous-Tertiary Mass Extinction Event,” Proceedings of the Royal Society B-Biological Sciences 268 (2001): 459–69; S. Hope, “The Mesozoic Radiation of Neornithes,” in L. M. Chiappe et al., eds., Mesozoic Birds: Above the Heads of Dinosaurs (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), 339–88; Z. Zhang et al., “A Primitive Confuciusornithid Bird from China and Its Implications for Early Avian Flight,” Science in China Series D 51, no. 5 (2008): 625–39.

  15. N. R. Longrich et al., “Mass Extinction of Birds at the Cretaceous-Paleogene (K-Pg) Boundary,” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108 (2011): 15253–57; G. Mayr, Paleogene Fossil Birds (Berlin: Springer, 2009), 262; J. A. Clarke et al., “Definitive Fossil Evidence for the Extant Avian Radiation in the Cretaceous,” Nature 433 (2005): 305–8; T. Fountaine, et al., “The Quality of the Fossil Record of Mesozoic Birds,” Proceedings of the Royal Academy of Sciences B-Biological Science 272 (2005): 289–94.

  16. P. Ericson et al. “Diversification of Neoaves: Integration of Molecular Sequence Data and Fossils,” Biology Letters 2, no.4 (2006): 543–47; but see J. W. Brown et al., “Nuclear DNA Does Not Reconcile ‘Rocks’ and ‘Clocks’ in Neoaves: A Comment on Ericson et al.,” Biology Letters 3, no. 3 (2007): 257–20; A. Suh et al., “Mesozoic Retroposons Reveal Parrots as the Closest Living Relatives of Passer
ine Birds,” Nature Communications 2, no.8 (2011).

  17. K. J. Mitchell et al., “Ancient DNA Reveals Elephant Birds and Kiwi Are Sister Taxa and Clarifies Ratite Bird Evolution,” Science 344, no. 6186 (2014): 898–900.

  CHAPTER XIX: HUMANITY AND THE TENTH EXTINCTION: 2.5 MA TO PRESENT

  1. P. Ward, Rivers in Time (New York: Columbia University Press, 2000).

  2. R. Leakey and R. Lewin, The Sixth Extinction (Norwell, MA: Anchor Press, 1996).

  3. “Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia,” Houston Museum of Natural Science, 2009.

  4. D. Johanson and M. Edey, Lucy, the Beginnings of Humankind (Granada: St Albans, 1981); W. L. Jungers, “Lucy’s Length: Stature Reconstruction in Australopithecus afarensis (A.L.288-1) with Implications for Other Small-Bodied Hominids,” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 76, no. 2 (1988): 227–31.

  5. B. Yirka, “Anthropologist Finds Large Differences in Gait of Early Human Ancestors,” Phys.org, November 12, 2012; P. A. Kramer, “Brief Communication: Could Kadanuumuu and Lucy Have Walked Together Comfortably?” American Journal of Physical Anthropology 149 (2012): 616–2; P. A. Kramer and D. Sylvester, “The Energetic Cost of Walking: A Comparison of Predictive Methods,” PLoS One (2011).

  6. D. J. Green and Z. Alemseged, “Australopithecus afarensis Scapular Ontogeny, Function, and the Role of Climbing in Human Evolution,” Science 338, no. 6106 (2012): 514–17.

  7. J. P. Noonan, “Neanderthal Genomics and the Evolution of Modern Humans,” Genome Res. 20, no. 5 (2010): 547–53.

  8. K. Prufer et al., “The Complete Genome Sequence of a Neanderthal from the Althai Mountains,” Nature 505, no. 7481 (2014): 43–49.

  9. P. Mellars, “Why Did Modern Human Populations Disperse from Africa ca. 60,000 Years Ago?” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 103, no. 25 (2006): 9381–86.