Global warming

Global warming

GAINESVILLE, Fla. --- University of Florida paleontologist Jonathan Bloch on Friday, Nov. 4, compares lower jaw fragments from two different species of Hyracotherium, the ancestor of the modern horse. In the background are computerized images of plant fossils from a period of sudden global warming 55 million years ago, which were found in northwestern Wyoming. The findings, which appear in this week’s issue of Science, provide the first evidence that land plants changed drastically during this time. Scientists had already known there were changes to mammals and other vertebrates, as the earliest known horses first appeared during this period, along with modern primates and even-toed ungulates that include pigs, camels and hippos. But until now, no clues were available about what happened to plants.