%0 Journal Article
%A Dam, Juan A. van
%A Aziz, Hayfaa Abdul
%A Álvarez Sierra, María De Los Ángeles
%A Hilgen, Frederik J.
%A Hoek Ostende, Lars W. van den
%A Lourens, Lucas J.
%A Mein, Pierre
%A Meulen, Albert J. van der
%A Peláez-Campomanes de Labra, Pablo
%T Long-period astronomical forcingof mammal turnover
%D 2006
%@ 0028-0836
%U https://hdl.handle.net/20.500.14352/51163
%X Mammals are among the fastest-radiating groups, being characterizedby a mean species lifespan of the order of 2.5 million years(Myr)1,2. The basis for this characteristic timescale of origination,extinction and turnover is not well understood. Various studieshave invoked climate change to explain mammalian speciesturnover3,4, but other studies have either challenged or onlypartly confirmed the climate–turnover hypothesis5–7. Here weuse an exceptionally long (24.5–2.5Myr ago), dense, and welldatedterrestrial record of rodent lineages from central Spain,and show the existence of turnover cycles with periods of2.4–2.5 and 1.0Myr. We link these cycles to low-frequencymodulations of Milankovitch oscillations8, and show thatpulses of turnover occur at minima of the 2.37-Myr eccentricitycycle and nodes of the 1.2-Myr obliquity cycle. Because obliquitynodes and eccentricity minima are associated with icesheet expansion and cooling and affect regional precipitation, weinfer that long-period astronomical climate forcing is a majordeterminant of species turnover in small mammals and probablyother groups as well.
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