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.
- Dorien de Vries
- Steven Heritage
- Erik R. Seiffert
