[Taxacom] Antarctic extinctions

[Ken Kinman]

Hi Chris,      I suspect that you are correct that your fly fossil was a late colonizer (Miocene or Pliocene) from South America.  But as you are clearly aware, the inability to narrow it down to a particular family (or even superfamily) introduces an element of uncertainty.  And such a late colonizer would probably not have greatly surprised even Hennig, but a much earlier relict certainly would have.                  In any case, seems to me that the Antarctic extinctions were not a one time catastrophe (like the end-Cretaceous extinction event), but came in several waves, with reintroduction of various taxa before they too were finally wiped out for good by even more severe glaciations.  This makes Antarctic extinctions more complex and more difficult to interpret, especially given the very limited fossil record.                   ---------------Ken-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------Chris Thompson wrote:Next week I will see if the Smithsonian Library has got this book and see 
what it says.

BUT if you ever get a copy, etc., I would appreciate your comments on it.

As you know, once I describe a higher muscoid fly from the Antarctica which 
Willi Hennig had predicted on biogeographic grounds would never had occurred
there. However, I suspect there was a late colonization from South America 
followed by a Cenozoic extinction, etc. to explain this occurrence.

Sincerely,

Chris Thompson
from home

-----Original Message----- 
From: Ken Kinman
Sent: Thursday, May 03, 2012 10:30 PM
To: taxacom at mailman.nhm.ku.edu
Subject: [Taxacom] Antarctic extinction


Dear All, A new book "Frozen in Time" sounds interesting. However, I 
wonder if the known fossil record of Antarctica at the present time could 
really do justice to what was probably the greatest mass extinction event 
DURING the Cenozoic (i.e., since the end Cretaceous extinction). Not having 
read the book, I can only guess, but I can't imagine the presently known 
fossil record of Antarctica could really properly document such an event. 
Unless they go well beyond the KNOWN fossil record and delve into some 
well-educated extrapolations, I'm not sure they could have done in this book
what I hoped that they might have. But I am prepared to be pleasantly 
surprised.-------------------Ken Kinman 
http://birdbookerreport.blogspot.com/2012/05/new-title_02.html
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