Café Scientifique

On April 12, 2011 we welcome Dr. Jaelyn Eberle, Associate Professor of Geological Science at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

Mammals living above the Arctic Circle 53 million years ago endured six months of darkness each year—but in a far milder climate than today, according to a new study led by Jaelyn Eberle. The findings suggest how modern mammals might migrate if today’s global climate continues to warm. Several varieties of prehistoric mammals as heavy as 500 kg each lived on what is today Ellesmere Island in Canada’s High Arctic, just a few hundred kilometers from the North Pole. Their summer diet was flowering plants, deciduous leaves, and aquatic vegetation. But in winter’s twilight they apparently switched over to foods like twigs, leaf litter, evergreen needles, and fungi. The study has implications for the dispersal of early mammals across polar land bridges into North America and for modern mammals that likely will begin moving north as Earth’s climate continues to warm. Dr. E. promises to bring us some ancient show-and-tell!