Widespread loss of mammalian lineage and dietary diversity in the early Oligocene of Afro-Arabia

Using time-scaled phylogenies of several endemic clades of small Afro-Arabian mammals, Dorien de Vries et al. infer a steep drop in species numbers around the Eocene-Oligocene transition. This dramatic decline coincides with a global cooling trend as well as the onset of widespread flood basalt volcanism in East Africa, and is found to be correlated with a major loss in dietary diversity.

Abstract licence: CC BY-NC-ND

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