[HN Gopher] Fossil hints that Jurassic mammals lived slow and di...
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       Fossil hints that Jurassic mammals lived slow and died old
        
       Author : Petiver
       Score  : 93 points
       Date   : 2024-07-24 23:27 UTC (23 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (www.nytimes.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (www.nytimes.com)
        
       | tamimio wrote:
       | https://archive.is/ZKg4B
        
       | BWStearns wrote:
       | I wonder if the harsh post impact environment selected for small,
       | short lived creatures due to the lower caloric energy
       | requirements, and faster genetic iteration speed respectively. If
       | your environment is particularly hostile with low resources then
       | taking many small bets quickly might be the favored play.
        
         | StanislavPetrov wrote:
         | It would be interesting to know what the climate was too. If
         | these animals hibernated or slowed their metabolism during cold
         | periods it would help explain their longevity.
        
           | CoolGuySteve wrote:
           | Scotland was around 35 degrees latitude and the Jurassic
           | period was fairly warm compared to now (tropical plants are
           | found up to 60 degrees latitude) so it's unlikely there was a
           | winter to hibernate through.
           | 
           | However there was significantly more oxygen in the atmosphere
           | back then. There could be a metabolic component related to
           | that since absorbing O2 was probably easier.
        
         | fhars wrote:
         | We have no idea when that transition happened, though, and if
         | it is related to the impact. The time from when these animals
         | lived in the Jurassic to the impact at the end of the
         | Cretaceous is considerably longer than the time from the impact
         | until today, much could have happened inbewteen.
        
       | cworsley4 wrote:
       | "Fossils"
        
         | layer8 wrote:
         | Yeah, I was reading it as the VCS for a moment there.
        
       | plutomeetsyou wrote:
       | Is it possible due to the more oxygen rich environment during the
       | jurassic era?
        
       | K0balt wrote:
       | It seems logical that a faster Metabolism, quicker to reach
       | reproductive viability organism would frequently outcompete
       | slower variants In the same biome niche.
        
         | vanderZwan wrote:
         | Not really, since a faster metabolism requires more energy
         | upkeep, and food scarcity has always been one of the biggest
         | selection criteria in nature.
        
         | KineticLensman wrote:
         | Metabolically slow ambush predators (some snakes, spiders, etc)
         | can also do extremely well in a given niche, and some of these
         | strategies are ancient.
        
         | Saturdays wrote:
         | the predominant theory is that the length of an organism's
         | lifespan is inverse to the rate of it's metabolism. Look into
         | Kleiber's law. Also worth reading the book Scale by Geoffrey
         | West.
        
         | jerf wrote:
         | There are also advantages to being slower. Check out
         | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/R%2FK_selection_theory , which I
         | reference historically and encompasses also the discussion on
         | Wikipedia about subsequent refinements of the theory.
        
       | cvaidya1986 wrote:
       | Mammals were the startups of the Jurassic era ( just survive and
       | you might end up being huge later )
        
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       (page generated 2024-07-25 23:12 UTC)