Huge mountain chains associated with major evolutionary changes.

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on the research by Ziyi Zhu et al. in their 2022 paper, "The temporal distribution of Earth's supermountains and their potential link to the rise of atmospheric oxygen and biological evolution," published in Earth and Planetary Science Letters. The paper posits that supermountains, such as those dwarfing the Himalayas, may have influenced evolutionary changes through geographic isolation, a concept rooted in Theodosius Dobzhansky's theories on speciation. However, while the geochemical aspects are robust, the direct correlation between mountain formation and rapid evolutionary changes remains debatable, especially when contrasted with events like the Chicxulub impact that triggered swift speciation.

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  • Awareness of rapid evolutionary changes and their implications, as evidenced by the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant research.
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This discussion is beneficial for evolutionary biologists, geologists, climate scientists, and anyone interested in the interplay between geological formations and biological evolution.

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TL;DR
Two huge mountain chains associated with major evolutionary changes: the first between 2,000 and 1,800 million years ago and the second between 650 and 500 mya. The mountain ranges were much larger than the Himalayas.
https://phys.org/news/2022-02-supermountains-evolution-life-earth.html
Paper:
Ziyi Zhu et al, The temporal distribution of Earth's supermountains and their potential link to the rise of atmospheric oxygen and biological evolution, Earth and Planetary Science Letters (2022).

DOI: 10.1016/j.epsl.2022.117391

"There's nothing like these two supermountains today. It's not just their height—if you can imagine the 2,400 km long Himalayas repeated three or four times you get an idea of the scale,"

This is an interesting idea. The geochemistry seems solid, but the association with major evolutionary changes is weaker. The thinking behind this is based on:
Geographic isolation is a major component of evolution (i.e., speciation) - Th Dobznhansky
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Theodosius_Dobzhansky

Stephen Gould and others brought in the ideas that gave us this model:
Major variants of speciation: allopatric, peripatric, parapatric, and sympatric. Speciation is how a new kind of plant or animal species is created.
Peripatric and allopatric involve physical and/or geographic isolation. This paper is using that kind of approach.

There are examples of catastrophic global environmental changes that were very fast, sympatric speciation. An extreme example is
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicxulub_crater.:
subsequent explosion of small mammal species.
loss of larger species like dinsaurs

Lots of species went extinct very quickly, opening ecological niches that surviving species could exploit and diversify into. On the other hand, time scales for mountain range development are orders of magnitude "slower" than the Chicxulub event.

All of this is okay. But it is worth noting that some geological speciation arguments need to be viewed as one answer of many possible.
 
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The weathering of the new mountains also removes CO2 from the atmosphere. Climate changes can also affect the direction of evolution (snowball Earth would be an extreme example).
This is also not a fast process.
 
@BillTre
FWIW - slow is not always true.

Open access:
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1673852721003738
Evidence for a mouse origin of the SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant
Changshuo Weiab Ke-Jia Shanab Weiguang Wangab ShuyaZhangab Qing Huana
Wenfeng Qian

Evolutionary changes may also be "spurts". The Omicron paper above makes a case for very rapid evolutionary changes during the possible zoonotic transformation Human->mouse->Human. Paper claims ~6 times faster genetic change than is documented in the rest of the genetic tree assemblage of the Covid virus.

And. Be a little cautious about the paper, there are other hypotheses like 'Covid spent a long time in a single immunocompromised patient, constantly changing' - who then spread the mutated virus to others.

The mouse idea is fun to think about. I've been told that 40% of all living mammals are mice and rats. So how could you ever find the problem mouse population? It would take an awful lot of cheese to track down all of them :smile:
 
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jim mcnamara said:
@BillTre
FWIW - slow is not always true.
Sorry. I was referring to climatic changes due to mountain weathering.
 
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While reading the cited papers, I found this corollary to this thread. Early planktonic life left graphite deposits on ocean floors providing added lubricant required by plate tectonics. Life led to taller mountains that in turn provided impetus to evolution.