The Pleistocene Murders - Forrest Bishop, Paleobiologist

A conversation with Forrest Bishop about the Pleistocene Murders - a whodunnit theory that seeks the cause of the megafaunal extinction that rocked the planet during the most recent period of glaciations - from 2.5 million years ago to about 10,000 years ago. While most theories - including a recent paper from Tel Aviv university point the finger at increasing populations of hungry humans, Forrest proposes that this ignores a crucial, global change that occurred over the course of the Pleistocene: a global decrease in carbon dioxide levels.   In the Pleistocene Murders, he proposes that falling carbon dioxide levels led to the dominance of c4 plants - those who can flourish at relatively low partial pressures of CO2. This evolutionary advantage allowed grasslands to dominate the globe... which, in turn, led to a decrease in the caloric content of the trophic foundation of the world's ecosystems. It's an excellent story that binds together geology, chemistry, and biology... and even a little bit of spirit, as humans have an emergent role on the planet that we get to at the very end of the conversation   Support the podcast by becoming a Patron @DemystifySci  ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ https://www.patreon.com/demystifysci ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª   Pleistocene Murders Blog: http://www.castaliahouse.com/otherscience-stories-the-pleistocene-murders-part-1/   ªº¬˚∆≤≥≤≥ Join the mailing list https://bit.ly/3v3kz2S​ ≤≥≤≥∆˚¬ºª   Check our main channel, @DemystifyingScience for in depth-investigations:   https://youtu.be/1OCL5Lq8m6s   PODCAST INFO: Blog: http://demystifyingscience.com/blog   Apple Podcasts: https://apple.co/3uhn7J1 Spotify: https://spoti.fi/39IDJBD RSS: https://anchor.fm/s/2be66934/podcast/rss Donate: https://bit.ly/3wkPqaD Swag: https://bit.ly/2PXdC2y   SOCIAL: - Twitter: https://twitter.com/demystifysci - Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/groups/demystifyingscience - Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/demystifysci/