Speedy Evolution Helped Icthyosaurs Survive Tough Times

It is hard to imagine what our planet was like 250 million years ago. It had already suffered through the Permian Extinction, which destroyed most of our complex ecosystems and almost 95 percent of all life on land and sea. A few million years later, in the very early parts of the Triassic Period, the planet did it again, inflicting another extinction event known as Smithian-Spathian.   This time, climbing temperatures did the damage. Evidence suggests Earth heated up to its...

© La Voix de l'Amérique - lundi 23 mai 2016