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The Mystery of Climate Change: How did the Late Cretaceous affect Earth's ecosystems?
The Late Cretaceous (about 100.5–66 million years ago) is the late Cretaceous period of the geological time period. The climate, geography, and biodiversity of this period had a profound impact on later ecosystems. As the Earth's environment changed, the biomes of the Late Cretaceous underwent amazing evolution, ultimately leading to the extinction of the dinosaurs and the rise of mammals.
Climate change
During the Late Cretaceous, Earth's climate was warmer than it is today, but there was a tendency for the climate to cool gradually throughout the period. Tropical climates are confined to the equatorial region, while the seasonal climate in the Northern Hemisphere varies significantly, resulting in a distinct cycle of seasons.
Climate change not only affects the distribution of climate zones at that time, but also affects the growth of organisms and their living environment.
Geographic Change
As plate tectonics shifted, North and South America gradually moved westward, leading to the expansion of the Atlantic Ocean. The western inland bay of the United States divides North America into two halves, east and west, resulting in the isolation and evolution of biodiversity. In the Southern Hemisphere, Australia and Antarctica appear to remain connected and are beginning to separate from Africa and South America. Europe is a chain of islands that are home to unique species of small dinosaurs.
Vertebrate prosperity
Non-avian dinosaurs
Dinosaurs of the Late Cretaceous, including hadrosaurs, ankylosaurs, and ceratosaurs, were successful in the American region. In North America, tyrannosaurus dominated the ecological niche of large predators, although similar species in Asia were generally small and primitive.
The diversity of dinosaurs demonstrates the biological advantages of adapting to different environments and provides valuable examples for our understanding of ecological evolution.
Birds (Avian Dinosaurs)
During this period, birds became increasingly common and diversified into various feathered dinosaurs. While most birds are small, some flightless seabirds, like the sea crane, have adapted to life in the open ocean.
Pterosaur
Pterosaurs existed in several forms, including rivals to birds. The survival strategies of these creatures suggest that pterosaurs and birds were not always in competition, and that the diversity of this period reflects their ecological adaptation.
Mammals
Although mammals were generally small in the Late Cretaceous, they began to adapt to diverse ecological environments. Different mammalian groups, mainly in the Northern Hemisphere, show significant differences in ecological distribution.
Evolution of Marine Life
The marine ecology of the Late Cretaceous was extremely diverse, and giant marine reptiles such as Mosasaurus and Triceratops underwent significant evolution.
These marine organisms demonstrate the resilience of life and how it can quickly adapt to sudden changes in its environment.
Plant Development
During the final stages of the Late Cretaceous, the diversity of flowering plants increased dramatically. Many familiar plants, such as magnolias and poplars, occur in temperate regions and provide important habitats and food sources for organisms.
Cretaceous-Paleocene mass extinction event
The Cretaceous-Paleocene extinction event, which occurred about 66 million years ago, was a massive mass extinction that affected the diversity of plants and animals. The cause of this incident has attracted widespread attention from scholars, and most scientists believe that it is related to an asteroid impact and subsequent volcanic activity.
The scientific community has not yet reached a complete consensus on the cause of this extinction event, suggesting that there is still much unknown in our understanding of past ecosystem changes.
From the evolution of the Late Cretaceous, we can get a glimpse of how past ecosystems were affected by climate and geographical changes, and how these changes affected the evolution of present-day organisms. Faced with current ecological problems, we cannot help but ask, how will today’s environmental changes affect future biodiversity and the balance of ecosystems?
