Re: Martin 2004 critique (somewhat lengthy)

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Jon Barber" <augray@sympatico.ca>
Sent: Monday, May 30, 2005 1:47 AM

> > But why should Martin read the JVP?
>
> I think that's in the Ostrom Symposium volume.

I think I've seen it in both places... anyway, it's pretty obvious Martin 
hasn't read the Ostrom Symposium volume either.

> Just as a side note, I recently discovered that Martin has interests in 
> areas outside ornithology.

Oh, that's true. The following is quite interesting:

T. J. Meehan, L. D. Martin (full first names nowhere mentioned): Extinction 
and re-evolution of similar adaptive types (ecomorphs) in Cenozoic North 
American ungulates and carnivores reflect van der Hammen's cycles, 
Naturwissenschaften 90, 131 -- 135 (2003)

Abstract:
"Numerous patterns in periodicity (e.g., climate, extinction, and 
sedimentary cycles) and evolutionary change (e.g., chronofaunas and 
coordinated stasis) have been described based on aspects of the geologic 
record. Recently, convergent occurrences of faunal types or 'repeating 
faunas' have received attention, but a highly specific, iterative pattern 
was first reported over 40 years ago. In the late 1950s, van der Hammen 
described climatic/floral cycles on the order of six million years based on 
a succession of A, B, and C pollen community types in South America. These 
A-B-C cycles are also seen in the replacement pattern of particular 
carnivore and ungulate adaptive types in Cenozoic North America as reported 
by Martin in the 1980s. For example, in the last 36 million years, there 
were four iterations of a sabertooth cat ecomorph independently evolving, 
dominating the niche through an A-B-C cycle, and then going extinct. Here we 
show further support for the existence of these cycles in the dominance 
turnover in hippo and dog ecomorphs in the North American Cenozoic. Shared 
patterns of extinction and re-evolution of adaptive types among plants and 
mammals across two continents suggest a global mechanism, which appears to 
be climate change. Iterative climatic cycles of various scales may form a 
predictive framework for understanding fundamental patterns in the geologic 
record, such as radiations, extinction, rates of change, convergence, and 
sedimentary cycles."