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Advances in Physiological Research pp 305–319Cite as

Thyroid Hormones, Membranes and the Evolution of Endothermy

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Abstract

Marking the end of the “age of the reptiles” and the beginning of the “age of the mammals” at approximately 65 million years ago, is a geological layer rich in the unusual element, iridium. It has been proposed that this layer of iridium is the remains of an extraterrestrial body that hit the earth and changed the earth’s climate, resulting in both a short term cooling effect (possibly measured in months) as well as long term changes in the climate, such as greater latitudinal variation in temperature and the beginning of greater temporal variation in climate (the ushering in of seasons). Although the first mammals arose 200 million years ago, for the first two-thirds of their evolutionary history they were not the dominant land fauna and it was only after the extinction of the dominant reptile fauna at about 65 million years ago that they began an explosive adaptive radiation that led, among other species, to ourselves, a species through which evolution has begun to become conscious of itself.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Biology, University of Wollongong, Wollongong, N.S.W., 2500, Australia

    A. J. Hulbert

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  1. A. J. Hulbert
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada

    H. McLennan , J. R. Ledsome , C. H. S. McIntosh  & D. R. Jones , ,  & 

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© 1987 Plenum Press, New York

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Hulbert, A.J. (1987). Thyroid Hormones, Membranes and the Evolution of Endothermy. In: McLennan, H., Ledsome, J.R., McIntosh, C.H.S., Jones, D.R. (eds) Advances in Physiological Research. Springer, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9492-5_17

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-4615-9492-5_17

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Boston, MA

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-4615-9494-9

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-4615-9492-5

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