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-Signs, Portents, and the Weather-
Study shows largest North America climate change in 65 million years
2007-02-09
The largest climate change in central North America since the age of the dinosaurs 65 million years ago, a temperature drop of nearly 15 degrees Fahrenheit, is documented within the fossilized teeth of horses and other plant-eating mammals, a new study reveals.

The overwhelming majority of previous climate-change studies on the 400,000-year transition from the Eocene to the Oligocene epochs, about 33.5 million years ago, focus on marine environments, but University of Florida vertebrate paleontologist Bruce MacFadden and his colleagues turned their attention to fossils from the Great Plains.

“If a temperature change of this magnitude occurred today, Florida would have weather similar to Washington, D.C., or even farther north,” said MacFadden, a curator at the Florida Museum of Natural History.

The Eocene-to-Oligocene transition is known in the fossil record as the Grande Coupure, the “Big Cut” in French, because it marks a massive extinction of life in both marine and land environments. Scientists believe the drop in temperature was likely due to changes in oceanic currents, MacFadden said.
Posted by:DanNY

#13  Not to worry - NET > "PLANET X" still incoming, + SOLAR CHANGES + Years 2009-2012. That only leaves "WAR IS NOT ONLY POSSIBLE/REALISTIC BUT DESIRED" USA-China war starting after Year 2014 [minima], and USA-Russia war after Year 2015, not counitng mixed scenarios. * HEAR US, SUN, JUST TO SHOW YOU WE MEAN BUSINESS WE'RE GONNA LET PLANET X + 2012 SMASH INTO THE EARTH DELIBERATELY - SURRENDER NOW, D *** YOU, OR YOU WILL BE HELD DIRECTLY RESPONSIBLE FOR OUR SUICIDE.
Posted by: JosephMendiola   2007-02-09 22:59  

#12  I have personaly seen a highway cut-bank in Rome, A good 2oo feet above the harbor, with a heavy shoal of clamshells embedded in it(Some form of Bivalve, I don't know one kind from another, either the water subsided, or the land rose (Rome is fairly near Vesuvius)
Posted by: Redneck Jim   2007-02-09 13:17  

#11  I find the article (and yes, I read it all) uncompelling, though probably accurate as far as it goes. What we really need is an estimate of how long it took for that temperature drop, what triggered it, and how it affected those animals that were studied.

When I was in Panama, I took a geography course that said the Ice Ages were caused by the disruption of the land bridge between North and South America, causing shifts in global sea currents. I haven't read anything since then about the subject. Since there are several parts of Central America that are less than 100 feet above sea level, I guess it could happen.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2007-02-09 13:03  

#10  So Global Warming is worse than even Al Gore thought?
Posted by: Bobby   2007-02-09 12:51  

#9  This study has no merit until I get my ouijy board out and try to make contact with my great, great, great ,great, ,great....(shish)great,great uncle.

I think is name was Bart.
Posted by: Fleck Graish5949   2007-02-09 12:06  

#8  True Rob. This whole thing smells of bullshit.
Posted by: DarthVader   2007-02-09 10:39  

#7  The Ice Ages were more recent than that.
Posted by: Rob Crawford   2007-02-09 09:46  

#6  If a democrat is elected president, be assured that Global Climate Change Warming will disappear.
Posted by: tu3031   2007-02-09 09:14  

#5  algore was right--it's global warming. It started 65 million years ago. It's man's fault.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-02-09 09:11  

#4  It's too late, humanity is doomed, nothing we can do will change our ultimate fate, let's change the subject. Now.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418   2007-02-09 08:44  

#3  WE'RE TOO LATE TO ADAPT!!!
Posted by: ed   2007-02-09 08:21  

#2  WE'RE TOO LATE TO ADAPT!!!
Posted by: ed   2007-02-09 08:19  

#1  When I first saw the headline, I thought that they meant that the current warming trend is the largest in 65 million years.

Of course, all climate change is Bush's fault.
Posted by: Rambler   2007-02-09 08:17  

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