Tropical turtle’s Arctic travels - February 02, 2009
The discovery of a fossil Asian turtle in the Canadian Arctic is leading some scientists to reconsider how these animals got to America.
According to researcher John Tarduno, of the University of Rochester, the fossil suggests that tropical turtles may have reached the New World from Asia not via Alaska but by coming directly over the poles.
“We’ve known there’s been an interchange of animals between Asia and North America in the late Cretaceous period, but this is the first example we have of a fossil in the High Arctic region showing how this migration may have taken place,” he says (press release).
“We’re talking about extremely warm, ice-free conditions in the Arctic region, allowing migrations across the pole.”
James Parham, who works at the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago and was not involved in the work, told Wired, “This paper is actually providing a route of dispersal for some of these animals. The story’s starting to slowly get pieced together.”
Tarduno says the find suggests that a ‘super-greenhouse effect’ caused by massive emissions of carbon dioxide 90 million years ago probably warmed up the poles, allowing turtles to island hop from Russia to America. Named Aurorachelys gaffneyi or the ‘aurora turtle’, the animal appears similar to a freshwater Mongolian species and probably needed these islands to cross the oceans.
“We found this turtle right on top of the last flood basalts—a large stretch of lava from a series of giant volcanic eruptions,” Tarduno says. “That leads us to believe that the warming may have been caused by volcanoes pumping tremendous amounts of carbon dioxide into the Earth’s atmosphere. There’s evidence that this volcanic activity happened all around the planet—not just the Arctic. If it all happened on a short enough timescale, it could cause a super-greenhouse effect.”
The research is due to be published in Geology.
More coverage
Turtle fossil shows how 'super-greenhouse effect' created tropical Arctic – Daily Telegraph
Fossil find shedding light on Arctic's past - Canwest News Service
Image: University of Rochester
Comments
It has to be CO2 and not the soot and ash right? Boy oh boy would a series of giant volcanic eruptions put alot of physical debris in the air. If they were active for many years the weather would change. The planet would heat up. To talk up CO2 and omit the obvious is insulting. Have you no shame or respect for the average reader. CO2 was responsible for maybe 1% of the warming but it gets top billing to fit your politics. 99% was soot and ash. Whats wrong with you people? I SUGGEST this scientist goes back to school.
Posted by: John | February 2, 2009 03:37 PM
* I.Velikovsky, Worlds in Collision - Planet X - Volcanoes activation, Poles reversal 3600 years ago:”The Japanese cosmogony says that the source of the light disappeared…Mayas documents are describing a cosmic cataclysm during which the ocean hit the continent…Volcanic explosions…The causes of the ulterior appearance and disappearence of the glacier layer…this ice layer dislodged from its place…Two celestial bodies have been attracted one to each other. The inner masses of the Earth were pushed to the periphery. The Earth with its rotation movement disturbed, started towarm…The Earth exploded and the lava started to spread around…the magnetic poles have been several times reversed, the last time during the Jews’ Exodus…The Talmud and other ancient rabbinical sources tell of great disturbances in the solar movement at the time of the Exodus and the Passage of the Red Sea…The Papyrus Ipuwer… says that the Earth turned over like a potter’s wheel…the South becomes North…The Greeks, like other peoples spoke of the reversal of the quarters of the earth…In Greenland also the Eskimos fear that the earth will turn over”:
a) http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2009/01/earths-magnetic-field-impacts-climate.html
b) http://cristiannegureanu.blogspot.com/2009/01/astronomers-discover-earth-like-planet.html
Posted by: Alex | February 2, 2009 11:58 PM
I find it amazing that such a find is not covered in the major media.
Of course, a "natural" cause of polar ice melt is not "popular" at the present time...
However, what we know is that the Earth is a dynamic system--often heating up and cooling down. These "ups" and "downs" are caused by various, sometimes unrelated, events.
While we, as humans, have a view of the world with ice at the poles, we need to remember that the planet is dynamic and that changes will happen. Man will not be able to halt/slow some of these climate shifts, even if we wanted to...
I think the author was looking at animal movement rather than the cause of the "global warming," but I could be wrong. The news articles don't really go into the cause of the warming but do discuss the "how the freshwater tropical turtle may have gotten there" topic.
Our actions on the planet are based on value judgments (most of the time). Sort of like dredging a river basin/inlet to allow for more water circulation to keep oysters and other shellfish alive--we put a value on that resource even if "natural" events like siltation would have meant the oysters would have died. We, as humans, make these types of value judgments all the time.
Right or wrong. The choices may be neither right nor wrong--just a choice. Of course, you likely have an opinion and are not willing to say you are wrong. However, I think you are wrong if you think you are always right...
Posted by: Counsel | February 26, 2009 04:08 PM