Our travels took us to West Virginia recently. While known more for its coal mines, the Mountain State, named for the Appalachian range, is also a fossil hunter’s haven. Who
Applying Locally Weighted Scatter-plot Smoother (LOWESS) regression, we analysed the global latitudinal diversity patterns of 394 living brachiopod species. We found a consistent bimodal pattern dominated by two mid-latitude peaks located respectively at 35–40°S and 30–35°N (∼warm-temperate zones, WTZs). The bimodality was found to be largely persistent and consistent irrespective of taxonomic, bathymetric and spatial scales. We tested the strength of seven ecological hypotheses thought to potentially explain the classic unimodal latitudinal diversity gradient. The Rapoport's rule was found to be the strongest model fitting the bimodal pattern, followed by the Species-Energy hypothesis. The mechanisms through which the mean latitudinal ranges and thermal niches of living brachiopods may have combined to produce the bimodality are further linked to two other factors: 1) most living brachiopods seem to have a strong adaptation to the mesothermal conditions of the WTZs, and 2
a monarchs and certain mollusks died out so what we re looking at here are the remnants of a major ecological crisis. but some test this ocean species did survive perhaps because they lived in the seas deeper sections instead of the shallower waters. it s a question that s of acute interest to stephan keel from the swedish museum of natural history in stockholm. the shine on this mare or rocky see is a plateau in the back to scott alps here he finds layers of stone that were once home to masses of brachiopods another group of hard shelled animals. and one of these valves open up a little they reveal arms covered in fine hairs called cilia and when water streams into the shell they serve as a filter separating particles of food from the water not once but.
explain why the brachiopods lived on species and shallower waters underwent mass extinction. but first stephanie keel has to prove that brachiopods also fed off methane here in the alps. that he collects samples to examine the land the creatures left their mark here with their limestone shells and their secretions researcher hopes to have solved the mystery in a few months time. and there are probably a number of other unknown ecosystems to be uncovered in the outs each contributing its own chapter to the story of how the mountain range was born. every who supplies travel thousands of kilometers today when to go it is except for the basing of wings. in contrast to that migration. in germany sent in
there are a range of similar finds across the line stone alps their sheer numbers can t be a coincidence so what explains their prevalence steffen killed believes that the brachiopods were dependent on one particular source of nutrition in the depths of the testis ocean methane. oregon in the u.s. state of oregon we found mass occurrences of the same brachiopods in deep water sediment from the same area called we were able to confirm that this was connected to a former methane deposit as the methane emerged from underground it would be ingested by bacteria which grew in numbers and the brachiopods in turn ate the bacteria we suspect this also happened here in the l n i didn t. primeval times methane deposits were as they still are the oases of the deep sea creatures at home in this habitat have always adapted to the extreme surrounding environment. which could