您现在的位置是:綜合 >>正文
【】
綜合3817人已围观
简介The species of alligator roaming Florida's swamps and golf courses may be millions of years older th ...
The species of alligator roaming Florida's swamps and golf courses may be millions of years older than previously thought, scientists from the University of Florida said.
What's more, the sharp-toothed reptiles we see today may be almost biologically identical to their millennia-old ancestors -- an incredibly rare trait for most living species, according to a pair of studies shared with Mashablethis week.
"What we saw 8 million years ago in Florida is virtually the same thing as what we have there today," Evan Whiting, the studies' lead author and a vertebrate paleontologist, said by phone from Gainesville.
SEE ALSO:Greenland sharks could be the world's longest-living vertebratesWhiting and his research team compared the fossils of the American alligator (Alligator mississippiensis) with those of extinct alligator species. They found that the minute differences in each species' forms were instead just variations of the same singular species.

Their findings extend the American alligator's lineage by about 6 million years, according to the study published in the Journal of Herpetology. Scientists had previously believed the species emerged about 2 million years ago, when the most recent Ice Age began.
"To hit this exact set of features in the American alligator, and for them to keep such a huge presence in the area that's now the Southeast U.S. for 7 to 8 million years, is nothing short of spectacular," Alex Hastings, the assistant curator of paleontology at the Virginia Museum of Natural History, told Mashable.
"The fact that their populations are doing pretty well today is a testament to their evolutionary success," said Hastings, who was not involved in the University of Florida studies.
The Florida researchers also found that, millions of years ago, American alligators shared the Florida peninsula with a species of 20-foot-long crocodiles, according to a separate study in the journal Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology.
While the crocs fed mostly on marine-based prey, the alligators stuck to freshwater or terrestrial sources -- a trait that still persists in American alligators, which lack the salt-secreting glands needed to thrive in saltwater.
The Alligator mississippiensis has proved resilient to naturally occurring changes in the climate and environment over millions of years. But in the modern era, the species' survival is increasingly at risk.

Florida's booming population and sprawling real estate have steadily destroyed the alligators' habitat in recent decades. The reptiles landed on the U.S. endangered species list in the late 1960s, although the species was removed in the 1980s after the population recovered thanks to habitat protection efforts.
Encroaching on alligators' habitat has dangerous consequences for humans, as well. In June, an alligator killed a toddler visiting Walt Disney World in Orlando, marking the fourteenth deadly alligator attack in Florida since 2000.
Human-caused climate change poses another serious threat to the American alligator. Florida's low-lying landscape and porous bedrock make it particularly vulnerable to rising sea levels and saltwater intrusion, which could destroy the gators' freshwater dwellings along with homes and communities across the peninsula.

"With increasing sea levels, we may see the available habitat for American alligators disappear," Whiting said.
As Florida sinks underwater and global temperatures warm, the alligator may move north over centuries to perhaps as far north as modern-day South Dakota and Nebraska, where Alligator mississippiensis likely originated.
"These things could be recolonizing parts of the United States that they haven't occupied in millions of years," Hastings said.
Tags:
转载:欢迎各位朋友分享到网络,但转载请说明文章出处“夫榮妻貴網”。http://new.maomao321.com/news/23b8899888.html
相关文章
U.S. pole vaulter skids to a halt for national anthem
綜合An American pole vaulter took his patriotism to the next level at the Olympics.。Sam Kendricks, a sec ...
【綜合】
阅读更多Xiaomi reveals launch date for series 12 flagship phone
綜合Xiaomi's next flagship smartphones, the Xiaomi 12 and 12 Pro, will be revealed in China on December ...
【綜合】
阅读更多How to use voice
綜合Voice-to-text options are becoming more common on social media apps like Instagram and TikTok as an ...
【綜合】
阅读更多
热门文章
- Olympic security asks female Iranian fan to drop protest sign
- Elon Musk is selling massive amounts of Tesla shares
- Adam McKay's 'Don't Look Up' is a fatalistic bummer: Netflix Review
- Facebook to change its name next week, report says
- This German startup wants to be your bank (without being a bank)
- Xiaomi reveals launch date for series 12 flagship phone
最新文章
Watch MTV's Video Music Awards 2016 livestream
Facebook, Instagram now allow praise for Kyle Rittenhouse
'Sex and the City' character dies on Peloton bike, and the company isn't having it
Xiaomi reveals launch date for series 12 flagship phone
Hiddleswift finally followed each other on Instagram after 3 excruciating days
Adam McKay's 'Don't Look Up' is a fatalistic bummer: Netflix Review