Adaptation to environmental changes: communities need more time than species

Effects of environmental changes on communities and on species have been studied with two different types of animals: mammals and conodonts. This analysis was conducted on mammals from the ’Ubeidiya Sequence (Israel) dated to the Lower Pleistocene, and on conodonts from the quarry of Coumiac (France) dated to the Frasnian/Famennian boundary (Devonian). The main result of the analysis is that an ecological event can be subdivided. First of all there is a change in the environment that corresponds to a physical signal, the species react to this change, and afterwards the communities respond. Thus, a delay in time can be observed between the reaction of the species and the reaction of the comm…