Re: Brrr, bone chilling paleopolar summers(Polar dinosaur growth and other new papers)

[Joe <dinosaur@gilvary.net>]

I'm curious how we can derive such detailed paleoclimate models that 
allow estimates of seasonal temps in specific locales. In another 
currently popular thread on bird, err, Aves, phylogeny I read about the 
difficulty in dealing with "species" for paleontological datasets. What 
kind of testable hypotheses do paleoclimate models provide? It seems to 
this casual observer that information in the fossil record on the 
climate of a particular environment is tied, at least in part, to 
information on the numbers and types of "species" in the environment.

Please pardon my ignorance. Does sedimentology or some other 
non-biological record provide additional useful information to describe 
paleoclimates?

 Thanks,

 Joe

Ar 8/6/2011 4:21 PM, scríobh Jura:
> ----- Original Message -----
>
> > From: Scott<hmwh@comcast.net>
> > To: GSP1954@aol.com; dinosaur@usc.edu
> > Cc:
> > Sent: Saturday, 6 August 2011 3:42 PM
> > Subject: Re: Brrr, bone chilling paleopolar summers(Polar dinosaur growth and 
> > other new papers)
> >
> > So, living conditions sound considerably better in polar Alaska 65 MYA than here
> > in the Northeast Kingdom of Vermont USA, where the average ANNUAL temperature is
> > 39.5 F and the winters have been known to get as low as 40 below zero...no
> > bradyenergetic crocs here either.
> >
> > Scott Perry
> > High Mountain Writers' House
> > Irasburg, VT
> +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
>
> No crocs, but seven turtles, one lizard and eleven snakes.
>
> Then there are the more northerly countries like Sweden, Denmark and Finland. 
> Their average temperatures are substantially more harsh than Alaska, or 
> Victoria would have been in the Cretaceous, and all of them house 
> bradymetabolic reptiles, amphibians, fish, and insects.
>
> I'd bet dollars to donuts that the only reason we haven't found "classic 
> reptiles" in the North Slope is because we haven't been looking that hard for them.
>
> Jason