Northern Conifers Are Younger As a Result of Extreme Climate Shifts, Study Says

Yale Environment 360: Extreme climate cycles in the Northern Hemisphere over millions of years altered the evolutionary history of the hemisphere's conifer trees, encouraging the formation of new species that are millions of years younger than their counterparts in the Southern Hemisphere, according to a new study. In an Wikimedia Commons analysis of the fossil remains and genetic makeup of 489 of the world's roughly 600 living conifer species, scientists found that while the majority of conifers belong to ancient lineages,...

URL: http://e360.yale.edu/digest/northern_conifers_are_younger_as_a_result_of_extreme_climate_shifts/3654/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+YaleEnvironment360+%28Yale+Environment+360%29
Enclosure: http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2012/09/12/1213621109.full.pdf+html?with-ds=yes