SCIENCE@home

Past changes on fauna and flora distribution

Greta C. Vega,M. Á. Olalla‐Tárraga

Published 2020 in Unknown venue

ABSTRACT

Abstract Both the fossil record and recent trends show unequivocal evidence that changing climates lead to range expansions and contractions of species with associated large-scale redistributions of biodiversity and extinctions. However, current global patterns of species richness, with exuberant tropical biotas and depauperate polar faunas and floras, are not a good reflection of the variety of life-forms that once inhabited high latitudes. The Antarctic landmass has occupied high paleolatitudes since the Early Permian but displays a long history of climatic variability and turnover of biological communities far from its current glaciated state and low species diversity. In this chapter, we chronologically review the diverse flora and tetrapod fauna that inhabited terrestrial ecosystems in Antarctic paleolatitudes at a time when climatic conditions where mild enough to allow their existence. Our review covers fossil and palynological evidence from the Paleozoic to the Cenozoic Era but mostly refers to the time span of ~ 200 Ma between the two major glaciations that took place during the Phanerozoic. Between the Paleozoic Karoo glaciation period and the onset of the Cenozoic glaciation, there was a period when floras and tetrapod faunas flourished on Antarctic terrestrial environments.

PUBLICATION RECORD

CITATION MAP

EXTRACTION MAP

CLAIMS

  • No claims are published for this paper.

CONCEPTS

  • No concepts are published for this paper.

REFERENCES

Showing 1-77 of 77 references · Page 1 of 1

CITED BY

Showing 1-3 of 3 citing papers · Page 1 of 1