December 11, 2009
Firefighters rescue boy with tongue stuck to post
BOISE, Idaho — It’s become an annual winter tale: A young boy
gets his tongue stuck to a metal pole, perhaps as the result of a dare.
This year, the scene straight out of the movie “A Christmas Story”
unfolded Tuesday morning in Boise with a boy of about 10.
Boise firefighters used a glass of warm water to free the unidentified
boy from the metal fence pole, according to the Idaho Statesman
newspaper. Fire Capt. Bill Tinsley says the boy’s tongue was
bleeding a little, but he was OK and allowed to continue walking to
school. Rescue workers responded after a woman driving by saw the
boy and called police dispatchers. Last year, the unlucky boy was a
10-year-old from Hammond, Indiana — especially apt, since the
1983 movie is set in a fictional city based on Hammond.
 Reading Ch. 15 & 16
 Final Exam date: TU, Dec. 15
• Material covered: Ch. 13, 14, 15, 16 + movie
Cenozoic Climate
 Early greenhouse climate
 Eocene warm peak
• Evidence
Oxygen isotopes
Leaf features
Cold water extinctions
• Cause
Methane hydrates
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Antevs/ecol438/lect07.html
http://www.nist.gov/public_affairs/colloquia/20050121.htm
http://www7430.nrlssc.navy.mil/7432/hydrates/background.htm
Cenozoic Climate
 Rapid cooling during Eocene
• Ocean circulation
Antarctica split from Australia
http://tenmillionyearsofsolitude.blogspot.com/
http://web.me.com/uriarte/Earths_Climate/Oligocene.html
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~tholtz/G102/102ceno3.htm
Cenozoic Climate
 Pleistocene Ice Ages
• Milankovitch cycles
http://tenmillionyearsofsolitude.blogspot.com/
http://www.fettes.com/shetland/chronology.htm
http://www.ianschumacher.com/global_warming.html
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Antevs/ecol438/lect07.html
Effects of Glaciation
 Continental drainage
 Isostasy
 Sea level changes
• Land bridges*
http://www.physicalgeography.net/fundamentals/10h.html
http://www.geology110.com/files/lecture13/html/web_data/file29.htm
http://higheredbcs.wiley.com/legacy/college/levin/0471697435/chap_tut/chaps/chapter15-05.html
Cenozoic Life
(Age of Mammals)
 Marine environment
• Gone: ammonites, rudistids
• New: sand dollars, nummulitids
• New: mammal predators
http://www.westsussexgeology.co.uk/geologygroups.html
http://www.geol.umd.edu/~jmerck/ASTR380/evolution09.html
http://higheredbcs.wiley.com/legacy/college/levin/0471697435/chap_tut/chaps/chapter16-01.html
Adaptive Radiation
 Took <15 My!
 Warm climate early
Gomphos
• Tree/forest
Lemur-like primates
Rodent-like animals
• Ground
Ungulates (hoofed) Eosimias
Flightless birds
Diatryma
Phenacodus
http://www.avph.com.br/diatryma.htm
http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/wildfacts/factfiles/443.shtml
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Antevs/nats104/00lect13eosimias.html
http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic-art/588461/6907/Phenacodus-restoration-painting-by-Charles-R-Knight-1898
Mid-Cenozoic
(Oligocene, Miocene)
 Change of forests to grasses
 Changes in mammals
•
•
•
•
Hoofs prevalent
Longer legs
Larger eyes
Teeth changes
Eocene elephant
http://www.k12.de.us/warner/grasslands.html
http://www.geo.arizona.edu/Antevs/ecol438/lect07.html
http://planet.uwc.ac.za/nisl/biodiversity/karen/page_15.htm
http://www.micro.utexas.edu/courses/levin/bio304/evolution/evol.proc.html
Eocene
Oligocene
http://hoopermuseum.earthsci.carleton.ca/evolution/equidae/eocene.html
Mammals: late Cenozoic
(Pliocene, Pleistocene)
 Lots of large mammals
• Adaptation to cold?
Less surface area:volume
 Pleistocene extinction
• Affected large mammals in
certain regions
http://www.rocksandminerals.com/fossil/mammoth.htm
Late Pleistocene Extinction
 Rapid climate change
• Temperatures rising
 Human ‘overkill’
• Human hunting
http://www.atlantisquest.com/Geotable.html
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/stoneage/megafauna.html
http://www.museum.state.il.us/exhibits/larson/lp_extinction.html
Evolution of Primates and Humans
Prosimians
 Primate features (60 mya)
• Larger brain
• Fewer specialized teeth
• Vision and grasping
Anthropoids
 Primate groups
• Prosimians (“before ape”)
 Oldest lineage
 Nocturnal (night vision)
 Abundant in Eocene (37-58 mya)
• Anthropoids
 Old World monkeys
 New World monkeys
 Hominoids (human ancestors)
– Chimps, orangatans, gorillas
Evolution of Humans
 Homonids
• Earliest fossil ~7mya
Ardipithecus ramidus
• Australopithecines
 Features of hominids
• Brain size
• Bipedalism
• Reduced canine teeth, tool
use
 Origin of Homo sapiens
• Out of Africa
• Multiregional
T.D. White et al. (2009) Science 326:64