tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10092066.post114011305897637447..comments2024-01-08T00:40:50.918-08:00Comments on The Dragon's Tales: Permian Climate Atmospheric Chemistry ModelUnknownnoreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10092066.post-1140121808405807862006-02-16T12:30:00.000-08:002006-02-16T12:30:00.000-08:00The PT Boundary separates us from a really differe...The PT Boundary separates us from a really different world. I am thinking, based on some fossils, that the KT does as well. Not just because of the cliamte so much as the ecology is going to be a lot different than people think of it. Reading about deinosuchus and the dog sized mammal from the Jurassic has made me think that the Mesozoic was actually as complex, if not more so, in terms of lifeform types as the Cenozoic and their roles. Your book on paleoecology could answer some of that.<BR/><BR/>Anyways, the plants of the Permian, iirc, were either conifers or tree ferns. IIRC, the PT Event killed an awful lot of plant life as well and that might have done in the different form of photosynthesis.<BR/><BR/>Hypothesis, fungus as we know it arose during the extinction event. Testable?<BR/><BR/>As for your thoughts about the feedback cycle not having developed...mmm...I'd guess, yes. Reason being is that the O2 level went nuts for a while there to levels that would be considered impossible today if not for the fossil evidence. Then we have a wild schwing the other way with the PT Event. <BR/><BR/>I wonder what the Triassic extinction was exactly? How did species fair through that? Could it be that was the beginning of the regulation? The KT and Eocene-Oligocene events might have some evidence to shed more light too. After I'm done Olmecing, the next book is on extinctions...I smell a future top level post...Will Bairdhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07562404098136557872noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10092066.post-1140120444477251042006-02-16T12:07:00.000-08:002006-02-16T12:07:00.000-08:00Okay, this has some implications for paleobiochemi...Okay, this has some implications for paleobiochemistry.<BR/><BR/>Let's see, from memory, the Carboniferous and Permian had an amazingly high O2 content, allowing the very large invertebrates of the period to thrive. Combine that with a high humidity, 40 C to a freaking 72 C ?! environment... there's nothing comparable today. Nothing at all.<BR/><BR/>It sounds like fungus heaven, except we know from the massive amount of coal from that era that dead plant matter was barely touched by fungus.<BR/><BR/>Photosynthesis in land plants may have been wildly different from today's plants. High humidity => less need to worry about transpiration water loss. High heat => different sets of enzyme reactions become possible. High O2 => more competition with CO2 in the carbon-fixing enzyme Rubisco.<BR/><BR/>Really wild speculation: Lovelock showed that there are biogenic feedback effects which regulate Earth's climate at least a little. Is the Permian endgame what happens to a biosphere in a time period before these biological feedback cycles develop?<BR/><BR/>The past is a different planet.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10092066.post-1140116168399287822006-02-16T10:56:00.000-08:002006-02-16T10:56:00.000-08:00Shoot, I am missing this.Shoot, I am missing this.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com