Abstract
Cerling et al.1 provide evidence of a worldwide expansion of biomass of plants using the C4 photosynthetic pathway about 8-6 million years (Myr) ago, recorded in the carbon isotope composition of the dental enamel of fossil herbivores. The authors claim that the expansion of C4 plants is accompanied by a “worldwide faunal change” and infer that “an important global ecological change was under way at this time”. For these statements to be true, the period of transition from C3 to C4 plants must prove to be contemporary with the period of faunal turnover, and both events must have taken place in the same geographic areas. At least, this is what the correlation of faunal and vegetation events provided by Cerling et al. seems to indicate.
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Köhler, M., Moyà-Solà, S. & Agusti, J. Miocene/Pliocene shift: one step or several?. Nature 393, 126 (1998). https://doi.org/10.1038/30124
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/30124
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