Fossils Suggest Chaotic Recovery from Mass Ex

[Roj47]

Very interesting. I wouldn't mind knowing any developments on the theory, proof or such like.

Insect bite marks in ancient leaf fossils are shedding new light on how nature bounced back after an asteroid impact killed off the dinosaurs and much of life on Earth 65 million years ago.

Plant and insect biodiversity is strongly linked today: Where there are many types of plants, there are many insects to eat them. But after the mass extinction, the devastated plant and insect populations might not have been so in sync, according to a new study.

"The recovery from a mass extinction was more interesting and chaotic than we thought," said study leader Peter Wilf, a paleontologist at Pennsylvania State University.

http://www.livescience.com/animalworld/060...odiversity.html

[frogfish]

Punctuated equilibrium

[Twitch98]

A reasonable insight I think. All we need do is imagine a complete or near extinction of humans today and think of how chaotic the planet's ecosystems would be as the remaining species scrambled to gain an equalibrium once again.

[girty1600]

Very interesting. While studying plants might not be the most exciting job in paleontology it is however necessary to discover the biodiversity relations between plants and animals after the great climate shift.

I'm also a big fan of the LiveScience web site.

[RollingThunder06]

Not to much attention is given to the little creatures. Leave it to them to come springing back after something that took out the dinosaurs.