{"id":116857,"date":"2024-10-21T23:40:46","date_gmt":"2024-10-21T16:40:46","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=116857"},"modified":"2024-10-21T23:40:46","modified_gmt":"2024-10-21T16:40:46","slug":"how-asteroids-may-have-shaped-evolution","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=116857","title":{"rendered":"How asteroids may have shaped evolution."},"content":{"rendered":"<p> <script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<\/p>\n<div itemprop=\"mainEntityOfPage\">\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"88\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dprg7k0061k7kyqhv8bjkj@published\">Like many of us, Earth bears old pockmarks. Our planet\u2019s crust has a band of ancient craters that formed around 465\u00a0million years ago. The divots were created at a time when animals in the seas were taking on a broad array of new forms, building complex ecosystems from plankton to jawless fish to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/content\/article\/newly-discovered-sea-creature-was-once-largest-animal-earth\">spaceship-like<\/a> filter feeders. Back then, those strange invertebrates might have been able to look up through the nighttime shallows and see the glow of Earth\u2019s very own ring, which may have been something like Saturn\u2019s.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"142\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpws7y001w3b710bl920sa@published\">Spotting the Milky Way on a clear night is awe-inspiring enough. I can only be envious of the early fish and archaic crabs that might have seen Earth\u2019s temporary band of spinning debris. That band, which Monash University planetary scientist Andrew Tomkins and colleagues are arguing existed in a new paper, may have been the result of an asteroid\u2019s passing <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sciencedirect.com\/science\/article\/pii\/S0012821X24004230\">just close enough<\/a> to our prehistoric planet to break up into innumerable pieces. (Unlike Saturn\u2019s ring, it wouldn\u2019t have been composed of so much ice.) The small, iron-rich rocks stayed in orbit for a time, but\u2014as expressed by my favorite new piece of technical jargon\u2014\u201cdeorbited\u201d around 465\u00a0million years ago, some of them crashing down into Earth. And although the band of ancient craters is the only physical evidence such a ring ever existed, life on Earth likely recorded the geological wonder too.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"126\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwsa3001x3b715ib3xsto@published\">The new hypothesis that there was such a ring is still in its early stages, and not every proposed ring stays put in our scientific visions of the past. Geologists previously suggested that Earth had a ring during the Eocene, about <a href=\"https:\/\/agupubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com\/doi\/full\/10.1029\/2001JD001230\">35.5\u00a0million years ago<\/a>, but the idea had more to do with searching for a possible cause for ancient climate shifts than with hard evidence from the rock record. It\u2019s possible that the Ordovician craters in Earth\u2019s rock record were created by another astronomical phenomenon, like asteroid debris forming a miniature moon that then broke apart. Whatever transpired, we know that some unusual event showered chunks of rocks across our planet\u2019s surface around 465\u00a0million years ago, a little sprinkle of space making its way to Earth.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"129\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwscl001y3b71k8pb1sey@published\">Let\u2019s assume that the provenance of those rocks was a ring, and follow through the consequences of such a debris field: When Earth wore a ring around its middle, it would have affected how sunlight reached the planet\u2019s surface. The ring probably would have shaded the hemispheres of the planet experiencing winter, while slightly increasing summer heat on the other half, Tomkins and co-authors suggest. Vast quantities of dust from the asteroid and the impacts of the smaller pieces might have affected sunlight and global climate too, perhaps helping to explain why Earth became an icehouse between 444 and 463\u00a0million years ago. And as we well know from our present habit of turning an icehouse climate into a greenhouse one, an altered climate dramatically affects life on our planet.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"122\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwsei001z3b71jj2ibua7@published\">During the time Earth may have gained and lost its ring, life was going through an incredible evolutionary burst. Paleontologists know this as the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event. Think of it as the sequel to the more famous, earlier Cambrian explosion, which saw the rapid origin of many different kinds of animal bodies and groups of living things in the seas. The GOBE was the following period\u2019s expansion of those previous themes, everything from algae to early clams and fish evolving into new forms and creating ecosystems comparable to what we see in today\u2019s oceans. It was the assembly of what we might think of as modern ocean ecosystems, a rich base of plankton allowing many other forms of life to thrive.<\/p>\n<aside class=\"recirc-line\" data-via=\"recirc-line\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/recirc-line\/instances\/cm2dprg7k0062k7kyw891hg0w@published\">\n<p>    <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2023\/02\/penguin-giant-millipede-beaver-fossils-paleontology.html\" class=\"recirc-line__content\"><\/p>\n<div class=\"recirc-line__img\">\n          <img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=140\" width=\"141\" height=\"94\" srcset=\"https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=320 320w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=480 480w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=600 600w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=840 840w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=960 960w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1280 1280w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1440 1440w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1600 1600w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=1920 1920w,&#10;https:\/\/compote.slate.com\/images\/1165f020-2e02-4b29-bdce-95c6303d70be.jpeg?crop=1560%2C1040%2Cx0%2Cy0&amp;width=2200 2200w\" sizes=\"auto, 141px\" alt=\"\" loading=\"lazy\"\/>\n        <\/div>\n<p><h4 class=\"recirc-line__byline\">Riley Black<\/h4>\n<h3 class=\"recirc-line__promoline\">340-Pound Penguins Once Roamed the Earth. Why Is Life Today So Small?<\/h3>\n<p>        <b class=\"slate-link--bold recirc-line__read-more\">Read More<\/b>\n      <\/p>\n<p>    <\/a><br \/>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"92\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwsgj00203b71905ykvea@published\">Working out what caused the GOBE is tricky if not impossible, given that this is not <em>Sim Earth<\/em> and we can\u2019t simply replay different scenarios to see what fits our hypothesis best. Still, perhaps Earth\u2019s ring and its climate consequences had a significant influence on Earth\u2019s life, and was the sudden global shift that nudged life to evolve in different ways. And whether a ring, a miniature moon, or some other scenario, spattering our planet with space rocks may have created conditions that set up what we think of as \u201cmodern\u201d oceans.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"233\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwsim00213b71nxi070yc@published\">Half a century ago, such ideas were received by the scientific community as speculative at best and fanciful at worst. Evolution had usually been thought of in reference to earthbound processes. (It still is, in most cases.) But today, we can consider how a near-miss asteroid and a possible ring around Earth affected life in the distant past because we know that space debris had a deep impact on life at another time. Long after the GOBE, about 66\u00a0million years ago, when ecosystems on land were as full of varied living things as the seas, a 6-mile-wide asteroid struck Earth at a place we now call Chicxulub, on the Yucat\u00e1n Peninsula. The heat pulse created by falling debris from the strike virtually wiped out every nonbird dinosaur on the planet within a day, soot and dust filled with sunlight-reflecting compounds then creating a global impact winter that lasted at least three years. The world didn\u2019t just lose almost all the dinosaurs; it also lost the flying pterosaurs, the seagoing mosasaurs, and reef-building clams the size of a toilet seat, in addition to mass extinctions of mammals, lizards, birds, and even plankton. <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/abs\/10.1126\/science.adk4868\">Just this year<\/a>, planetary scientists identified the asteroid as a carbonaceous chondrite, an iron-heavy chunk of rock left over from our solar system\u2019s formation that was pulled onto a collision course with Earth in the most catastrophic million-to-one shot of all time.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"32\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwskz00223b71r8o7nqfx@published\">For all the destruction that space rock caused, it cleared the way for so much other life. Without that asteroid, we wouldn\u2019t be here or recognize the planet we now call home.<\/p>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"211\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwsny00233b71tz5cfyxt@published\">Primates <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2022\/05\/primates-dinosaurs-asteroid-purgatorius-survival.html\">were already around<\/a> by the time the asteroid struck, in a Northern Hemisphere spring 66\u00a0million years ago. When they emerged from their hiding places in the aftermath of the first day and scrounged for food in the following years of darkness, the world was fundamentally changed. Angiosperms, or flowering plants, grew back faster and denser than the previously ubiquitous conifer relatives had been. Iron from the immense asteroid was distributed in the dusty debris and enriched soils across the planet, allowing Earth to host the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/no-dinosaurs-did-not-trudge-through-thick-rainforests-180984730\/\">very first rainforests<\/a> in the tropics. And without hulking dinosaurs to plow down vegetation and keep forests relatively open, plants grew dense into multitiered habitats that acted as the crucible of mammal evolution. It was here that our ancestors, among many other forms of life, found themselves in a world of thick, novel habitats. Dinosaurs were out of the way, but competition for space and food among these smaller creatures nudged surviving species into new forms. Had the asteroid missed or even struck a different place on the planet, then the world would have continued to be covered in forests of resin-oozing monkey puzzle trees and ginkgoes, and a place where dinosaurs of all shapes and sizes proliferated <a href=\"https:\/\/www.smithsonianmag.com\/science-nature\/other-mammals-not-dinosaurs-kept-our-ancestors-down-180978040\/\">while mammals thrived<\/a> only at diminutive size.<\/p>\n<aside data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/in-article-recirc\/instances\/cm2dprg7k0063k7kyod7fe0un@published\" class=\"in-article-recirc\" data-via=\"article-inline_recirc-section-technology\">\n<ol class=\"in-article-recirc__list\">\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2024\/10\/hearing-aids-loss-sudden-deafness-apple-airpods.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            Millions of Americans Could Improve Their Lives With a Simple, Miraculous Device. What\u2019s Stopping Them?<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2024\/10\/northern-lights-only-look-good-in-photos-why.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            Everyone With Spectacular Northern Lights Photos Is Lying to You<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2024\/10\/reddit-gamestop-stock-wall-street.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            It Was a Collective Online Delusion That Sparked a Whole Movie. They Still Aren\u2019t Ready to Let Go.<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<li class=\"in-article-recirc__item\">\n          <a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2024\/10\/uber-lyft-gig-workers-artificial-intelligence-wage-discrimination-jobs.html\" class=\"in-article-recirc__link\"><\/p>\n<p>            Why You Might Soon Be Paid Like an Uber Driver\u2014Even If You\u2019re Not One<br \/>\n          <\/a>\n        <\/li>\n<\/ol>\n<\/aside>\n<p class=\"slate-paragraph slate-graf\" data-word-count=\"186\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-paragraph\/instances\/cm2dpwsry00243b71pzazauza@published\">The evolution of Earth\u2019s life is often discussed and debated in terms of what\u2019s happening on our planet. Life adjusts according to cooperation and competition, climate change and human impact. But Earth exists as part of a solar system, galaxy, and universe too\u2014and sometimes other parts of our universe come to visit us. Earth isn\u2019t an isolated terrarium, and life upon it has been as influenced by impacts and near misses as by continental drift. We can\u2019t answer why birds are the only dinosaurs still alive, or perhaps even how our oceans built up their complex ecosystems, without speaking of asteroids and their consequences. Speeding rocks have altered life\u2019s unfolding so unpredictably that it\u2019s often easier to write them off as a rare and unusual part of the story. We\u2019re starting to see evidence otherwise. We owe our very existence to an asteroid, after all, our story connected more than 9\u00a0billion miles away to the cusp of our solar system. It\u2019s bittersweet, owing even the possibility of my existence to a cold chunk of rock that took away the dinosaurs I wish I could see <span class=\"slate-paragraph--tombstone\">alive.<\/span><\/p>\n<aside class=\"slate-kicker-promo\" id=\"kicker\" data-uri=\"slate.com\/_components\/slate-kicker-promo\/instances\/cm2dprg7k0064k7kyq1radgir@published\"\/>\n<\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\n!function(f,b,e,v,n,t,s){\nif(f.fbq)return;n=f.fbq=function(){n.callMethod?\nn.callMethod.apply(n,arguments):n.queue.push(arguments)};if(!f._fbq)f._fbq=n;\nn.push=n;n.loaded=!0;n.version='2.0';n.queue=[];t=b.createElement(e);t.async=!0;\nt.src=v;s=b.getElementsByTagName(e)[0];s.parentNode.insertBefore(t,s)}(window,\ndocument,'script','https:\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/fbevents.js');\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><script async src=\"https:\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js?client=ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     crossorigin=\"anonymous\"><\/script>\r\n<ins class=\"adsbygoogle\"\r\n     style=\"display:block\"\r\n     data-ad-format=\"fluid\"\r\n     data-ad-layout-key=\"-fb+5w+4e-db+86\"\r\n     data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-3711241968723425\"\r\n     data-ad-slot=\"7910942971\"><\/ins>\r\n<script>\r\n     (adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});\r\n<\/script><br \/>\n<br \/><div data-type=\"_mgwidget\" data-widget-id=\"1660802\">\r\n<\/div>\r\n<script>(function(w,q){w[q]=w[q]||[];w[q].push([\"_mgc.load\"])})(window,\"_mgq\");\r\n<\/script>\r\n<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/slate.com\/technology\/2024\/10\/asteroid-earth-ring-evolution-dinosaurs-extinction.html\">Source link <\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Like many of us, Earth bears old pockmarks. Our planet\u2019s crust has a band of ancient craters that formed around 465\u00a0million years ago. The divots were created at a time &hellip; <a href=\"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/?p=116857\" class=\"more-link\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8628],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-116857","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-science","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116857","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=116857"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/116857\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=116857"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=116857"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/hotvideos24.online\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=116857"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}