Christopher Dick
Assistant Professor, EEB; Assistant Curator, U-M Herbarium
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1999
Posted on 06/22/2007 10:28:02 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
...the kapok tree now is upsetting an idea that biologists have clung to for decades: the notion that African and South American rainforests are similar because the continents were connected 96 million years ago. Research by University of Michigan evolutionary ecologist Christopher Dick and colleagues shows that kapok -- and perhaps other rainforest -- trees colonized Africa after the continents split when the trees' seeds traveled across the ocean... said Sam Scheiner, program director in NSF's Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. "In order to plan for and mitigate global climate change, we need to understand the history of life on Earth through studies like this one." Oceanic dispersal links the world's rainforests, said Dick, "and this study is one of the first to catch that process in action at the species level. Although single seeds are very unlikely to survive an oceanic voyage and then successfully become established elsewhere, such improbable events become probable over 10 to 15 million years." ...Dick concluded that extreme long distance travel by wind or ocean currents explains how the trees spread from South America to Africa. He plans to continue investigating the role of oceanic dispersal to see if the same is true for other species and for entire plant communities. "This tree has become locally extinct in parts of the Peruvian Amazon as a result of overexploitation for plywood," Dick said. "It might be saved from widespread extinction by continuing to invade new land areas through oceanic dispersal."
(Excerpt) Read more at nsf.gov ...
Christopher Dick
Assistant Professor, EEB; Assistant Curator, U-M Herbarium
Ph.D., Harvard University, 1999
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Kapok trees are challenging the notion that African and South American rainforests are similar.
Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
Has anyone studied the similarities between the jungles on the two continents?
I guess Dick has, but I’m not sure, I don’t know Dick.
LOL!
Obviously, if a salt water / full sunlight exposure test was done on the seeds for the months it would take them to cross the Atlantic, and they didn't die, then this research makes sense. Otherwise, it's a giant load of crap. Of course, it was only done as part of the global warming demagoguery.I wonder also if there is a definite measurement of the antiquity of the kapok forests on each side of the divide? If not all that old in one or the other place, navigators? And in that case, GGG?
LOL.
Say goodnight Dave.
Found: 1975, in Lapa Vermelha, Brazil
Age: 11,500 years
Discoverer: Annete Emperaire
Significance: The oldest dated skeleton from the Americas, this young woman with African features may be part of the first wave of immigrants to South America.
Dozens of skeletons have emerged from the caves dotting Lagoa Santa in eastern Brazil, but one in particular has recently caused a stir -- 25 years after it was dug up from a 40-foot-deep pit.
New dating of the bones have determined that Luzia (her name pays homage to the famous African fossil "Lucy," who lived 3.2 million years ago) is the most ancient known American, with remains 11,500 years old.
Luzia died in her early 20s. Although flint tools were found nearby, hers are the only human remains in Vermelha Cave.
The anatomy of her skull and teeth - including a narrow, oval cranium, projecting face and pronounced chin - likens Luzia to Africans and Australasians. Brazilian anthropologists propose that Luzia traveled across the Bering Strait, perhaps following the coastline by boat, from northeast Asia, where her ancestors had lived for tens of thousands of years since exiting Africa.
(Since this article was written, Arlington Springs Woman has been found to be the oldest human skeleton found in the Americas)
The Kapok Connection: Africa and South America Were Once Joined - A tree confirms that
By: Stefan Anitei, Science Editor
The kapok tree is going to solve a mystery that has puzzled the biologists for a long time: the similarity between African and South American rainforests.
The two continents split 130 millions years ago; still, their forests are too similar, and it seems that 96 million years ago, they were still exchanging flora.
A team led by evolutionary ecologist Christopher Dick at the University of Michigan showed that kapok, and perhaps other rainforest trees, entered Africa after the continents split, apparently through the seeds that traveled across the (back then narrow) Atlantic ocean...”
IMO the original research report bears very little similarity to the published article. Enter the spin:
“This research provides vital information for one of the most highly threatened areas of the planet, tropical rainforests,” said Sam Scheiner, program director in National Science Foundation’s Division of Environmental Biology, which funded the research. “In order to plan for and mitigate global climate change, we need to understand the history of life on Earth through studies like this one.”
Spot the contradiction?
Kapok trees are challenging the notion that African and South American rainforests are similar.
Credit: Zina Deretsky, National Science Foundation
I remember when kapok was the sound you heard when you pulled the cord of the lawn mower and it didn’t start. :)
I thought it was Tupac’s older brother. ;’)
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