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A colder Carboniferous and reptiliomorph domination?; Too cold for early amniotes.
Topic Started: Apr 1 2010, 04:46 AM (494 Views)
Dean
Infant
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In our world, the amniotes appered sometime during the early carboniferous, and in the drying but still warm world, boasted obvious advantages that eventually resulted in the out-competition of the reptiliomorphs.
But early amniotes had a big disadvantage that still plagues modern reptiles: They can't tolerate cold climates very well, because they lost the ability to hibernate. This is evident in the Antarctica of the Mesozoic which had a subarctic climate, where semi-aquatic crocodile-like reptiliomorphs had more success than reptiles, likely because they hibernated in ponds and lakes in the cold and harsh winter.

If the Carboniferous climate began to get colder instead of drier, and would have resembled the Cenozoic more than the Paleozoic, would reptiliomorphs have out-competed early amniotes?
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Pando
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Cold climate still means dry climate, so reptiliomorphs won't be able to go to the interiors of the continent because they weren't amniotes, but around the coast and rivers reptiliomorphs will dominate. But considering that synapsids also evolved in the carboniferous, they could dominate the interiors of the continents.
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Dean
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Pandorasaurus
Apr 3 2010, 02:27 PM
synapsids also evolved in the carboniferous, they could dominate the interiors of the continents.
I don't know much about the thermo-regulation of early synapsids, but weren't they all cold-blooded except the very advanced cynodont-like therapsids? Because if they were, they wouldn't have fared better than sauropsids in this cold-carboniferous world.
Edited by Dean, Apr 3 2010, 03:12 PM.
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Pando
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Carboniferous synapsids, reptiles, and reptiliomorphs were all cold blooded. You're saying that reptilimorphs will fair better than reptiles because they can hibernate, but I'm pretty sure that Synapsids could hibernate too. And I'm pretty sure anapsids could hibernate too, so don't forget the anapsids.
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janlor
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you sayed colder than dryier the climate in end of carboniferous was cooling and drying not only drying
my projects:

Romeo 5
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3108148/1/ 2 creatures presented!

alien-like earth
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3223527/1/

The New Humans
http://s1.zetaboards.com/Conceptual_Evolution/topic/3253024/1/

Feliearth
Feliearth

Few jokes:
addition to fashion: fasism
why two Stiupid SNAIADIAN CHILDS WAS KISSING Because they observed they pet kahydrons and wants to have baby
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

I need to know how much colder and drier to spec' this.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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Dean
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In our world, the climate began to get mainly drier in the Carboniferous, but in this world it instead began to get colder, not drier. How cold? Cold enough that it would resemble the Pliocene more than the Paleozoic, and because of this, amphibians would have the upper hand, because they could hibernate, unlike the early reptile-like amniotes.
Edited by Dean, May 1 2010, 02:51 PM.
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Holben
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Rumbo a la Victoria

Well, sounds like this must have been caused by a major drift in plates. That would open up water into the centre of the landmasses, and give a better environment for non-amniotic creatures.
Time flows like a river. Which is to say, downhill. We can tell this because everything is going downhill rapidly. It would seem prudent to be somewhere else when we reach the sea.

"It is the old wound my king. It has never healed."
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