Pole shift and endemics

2024 Author: Seth Attwood | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-16 15:55

The endemicity of the fauna is usually explained by the long-term isolation of the territory for thousands or even millions of years. This post has a slightly different perspective. and at the time of isolation and at the rate of natural selection.

Material taken from rodline magazine.

Let's pay attention to the endemic animal - the Tasmanian marsupial devil.

I read about this glutton (the Tasmanian devil eats all sorts of things up to 15% of his weight per day) - it turned out that he has one most interesting fact that, I think, should correct the idea of endemics.

Some commentators, pointing to endemics, viewed their existence as an argument against pole shifts. For example, the endemic animals living on the island of Tasmania are thermophilic, and if the South Pole happened to be closer to the island, they would hardly have survived.

Let's look at the positions of the poles in the southern hemisphere.

The poles are located in places far enough from Tasmania. The closest pole is the one before last - 3800 km from the Tasmanian coast. This distance in the northern hemisphere corresponds to the latitude of Moscow. The far coast of the island was at a distance of 4100, which corresponds to the latitude of Minsk. Could a Tasmanian survive? I think yes. Moreover, the creature is omnivorous.

In addition, at each shift

there are movements in the lithosphere, ups and downs.

Tasmania is on the Australian platform, which is clearly visible on satellite imagery.

The green line marks the shoals that link the island to the continent. It may very well be that before the last shift, or the penultimate one, Tasmania was not an island (in itself, such a statement is not new - science has been counting for so long, but sends this event millions of years into the past). Accordingly, animals could move, at least, along the isthmus.

If you look north of Australia, you can see several paths there with shallow depths,

which, when the bottom was raised earlier, represented majestic territories with inland seas and lakes. The total area of these territories was enough for two Australia.

On these lands, animals could move. In any case, in China, the remains of marsupials are found, which confirms the voiced version. Once, albeit some time (the period between the pole shifts is estimated to be in the range from 400 to 600 years), but from Tasmania on foot it was possible to reach Siberia.

Let's go back to the glutton. Since he is endemic, then his disease is endemic - gluttonous.

".. The first fatal disease called devil facial tumor disease, or DFTD, was registered in 1999. Over the past period from it, according to various estimates, from 20 to 50% of the marsupial population died devils, mainly in the eastern part of the island…. DFTD starts with small tumors around the mouth, which degenerate into malignant and gradually spread from the head of the animal to the whole body. to death by starvation. Mortality in this disease is 100%.."

What can be the protection from a serious, "household" disease in this animal? - Evolutionarily, it must develop a protective mechanism in a few thousand years, through natural selection.

Anything.

Anything.

Rather, it does not happen!

Will work!

And where to go!

If you want to live, be able to work out!

Just remember that he is called the Tasmanian devil. So he did the devilry. Developed evolutionarily, by natural selection for a couple of years, a protective mechanism.

We read: ".. There is currently no cure for DFTD, so devils have to look for natural mechanisms to fight the disease. As it turned out, these animals have them. First, the devils accelerated puberty. In July 2008, scientists from the University of Tasmania were able to establish that the number of pregnant females under the age of one year increased significantly (in some control populations, the increase was more than 80%). Usually, females do not begin sexual activity until two years old, however, further analysis showed that they now mature 6-12 months earlier. Considering that the average life span of the devil is six years, this is a significant "shift." Secondly, devils began to breed all year round, while earlier the mating season lasted only a couple of months. According to the researchers, the change in breeding strategy is intended to compensate for the damage done by the disease … ".

What is the strongest instinct in a living being? - Two answers are possible here: the instinct of self-preservation and the instinct of reproduction. For the sake of survival, the Tasmanian has corrected the stronghold of reproduction in a couple of years.

This is how endemic animals appear in nature. Have you forgotten the seal in Lake Baikal? They had to survive - they survived. We switched to fresh water. For a million years !?

Well no!

Per

million

seconds!