Silvia Pineda-Munoz, PhD - Climate Ages

Planetary Cooling Triggered Mass Speciation Events #extinction #evolution People often ask what climate change will do to life on Earth. Will species disappear… or will new ones evolve? The fossil record has actually been running that experiment for nearly 500 million…

What would happen to marine life if the planet cooled, glaciers grew, and sea levels fell?

The fossil record has been running that experiment for nearly 500 million years… and the answer is surprising.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/LcaUJeh

Climate Is Changing the Planet. Is Nature Keeping Up? What 100 Years of Biodiversity Data Reveal About How Ecosystems Respond

Climate is changing the planet.

So ecosystems should be changing faster… right?

A century of biodiversity data suggests something more complicated is happening.

Here’s the question scientists are now asking: is nature keeping up?
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/iiccnel

540 Million Years Prove Your Location Determines Survival Why did some species survive massive climate shifts while others vanished? Paleontologists just analyzed 500 million years of Earth’s history and found that, while many factors influence survival,…

Why did some species survive past climate crises while others vanished?

A 500-million-year fossil study suggests the answer may be hidden in the shape of the continents.

Sometimes survival wasn’t just about adaptation.
It was about the map.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/KSS1D5Y

A 7,000-Year Comparison of Caribbean Reef Food Chains Nitrogen isotopes from fossil and modern reefs show shorter food chains and less dietary differentiation

For years, we’ve measured coral cover and fish numbers.

But what about the structure of reef food webs?

Reefs aren’t just getting smaller. They are functioning differently.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/EXPzWtb

Well, he may come back 🥰 yay Steggy!!

"Climate is not just background. Geography is not static. Evolution is not random drift. These are linked processes operating over immense spans of time."

Thanks for sharing!

How Climate Shaped the Origin of Marine Life for Nearly 500 Million Years New research shows that long-term climate trends shaped when new marine genera appeared in Earth’s oceans

For decades, scientists argued about whether warming or cooling drives new species.

The fossil record was holding the answer all along.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/jKZCdIN

The cover-up just never ends. Rest in peace, Ruben Ray Martinez.

Illustration of the global modern magnesium cycle in seawater. Mg fluxes and Mg isotopic compositions of seawater and various sources/sinks are taken from the published literature Source: https://linkinghub.elsevier.com/retrieve/pii/S0012821X15000163

#WeekendReading: Wang et al., on magnesium isotopes and how they work in carbonate minerals (notably the role of flow regime in setting the rate limits). 🧪⚒️

Link: www.sciencedirect.com/science/arti...

Me too! Thanks for reaching out!

If large “hidden” continents had existed, we’d find preserved ancient continental rocks or fragments. We don’t.

Paleomagnetism, matching mountain belts, fossil distributions, and seafloor magnetic patterns all independently support the same reconstructions.

🧪🧵✂️

Great clarification 😊

The key evidence is the crust itself. Continental crust is thick, light, and very old. Ocean crust is thin, dense, and constantly recycled. We map and date both.

🧪🧵

But if you rotate the globe, you just see ocean. We know that because ocean crust is mapped and dated. There isn’t missing continental crust hiding there.
🧪🧵✂️

Not dumb at all. The map you’re seeing is just a projection, like flattening a globe onto a page. We usually center it on Pangea, which makes it look like “nothing” is on the other side.

🧪 🧵

Why the Shape of Continents Mattered Across 500 Million Years of Climate Change New fossil evidence shows how geography influenced who survived Earth’s climate shifts

Extinction isn’t random.

Range size matters. Temperature tolerance matters. Climate change matters.

But there’s another piece we’ve long suspected: geography.

For 500 million years, the shape of continents helped shape survival.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/rPvvUEM

It sure does!

Happy Birthday Darwin! 🧪

Could Dinosaurs Raise Their Young at the Poles? We know dinosaurs lived at the poles. How? Because we’ve found their fossils in places that, during the Late Cretaceous, sat at extremely high latitudes — including northern Alaska. These weren’t…

We know dinosaurs reached the Arctic.

But did they stay year-round… or just migrate?

The answer came from something tiny: newborn fossils.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/H62Y5Wh

a creature that looks like a yellow and orange snake, but is actually a legless gecko. or maybe its a cartoon come to life. Its hard to tell as it has a smooth, round head, perfectly round, black eyes, and a slight smile.

Oops I accidentally spent three hours making a powerpoint presentation on phylogenetics and legless gecko diversity/appreciation.

Look at how cute Aprasia inaurita is!

📷 Nick Volpe @nvolpe.bsky.social

Could Dinosaurs Raise Their Young at the Poles? How fossils from the Arctic changed what we know about dinosaur reproduction

Could dinosaurs raise their young at the poles?

For decades, migration seemed like the answer. But tiny Arctic fossils tell a different story
buff.ly/bLhO1l6
🧪 #SciComm

Oh, that’s a great one. Thanks for sharing!

I somehow missed it. On my to-watch list!

The Asteroid That Ended the Dinosaurs Hit in the Spring We all know the story. An asteroid hit Earth. Dinosaurs went extinct. But here’s a question we almost never ask: When did it hit? Not the year. The season. Does that even matter? It turns out—yes. A…

We know what killed the dinosaurs.
We know where it hit.

But here’s the question we almost never ask:
When, within the year, did the asteroid strike?
New evidence suggests it was spring.

And in biology, timing can be everything.
🧪 #SciComm
buff.ly/xoqrhxI

On my list!

Development of lizards before the egg is laid. Very useful!

When I read the paper, I was surprised I hadn't seen more on the topic!

"A spring impact would have struck Northern Hemisphere ecosystems at a moment of heightened biological sensitivity, when many organisms were investing heavily in reproduction and growth"

Thanks for sharing!

"Like tree rings, fish bones grow in cycles. Growth slows or stops during unfavorable conditions and accelerates when food becomes abundant. These changes leave distinct markers that can be read under the microscope and corroborated with chemical signals linked to feeding."