Widespread loss of mammalian lineage and dietary diversity in the early Oligocene of Afro-Arabia

Dorien de Vries; Steven Heritage; Matthew R. Borths; Hesham M. Sallam; Erik R. Seiffert

Widespread loss of mammalian lineage and dietary diversity in the early Oligocene of Afro-Arabia

2021

Dorien de Vries | Steven Heritage | Matthew R. Borths | Hesham M. Sallam | Erik R. Seiffert

Using time-scaled phylogenies of several endemic clades of small Afro-Arabian mammals, Dorien de Vries et al. infer a steep drop in species numbers around the Eocene-Oligocene transition. This dramatic decline coincides with a global cooling trend as well as the onset of widespread flood basalt volcanism in East Africa, and is found to be correlated with a major loss in dietary diversity.

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