This article by James Gorman is about the effects of global warming on entire species of animals. The Sifrhippus was once the smallest horse in the world before it went extinct. 50 million years ago, it underwent a change in size from an average of 12 pounds to 8 and a half as the temperature increased over the course of several thousand years. Scientists say that this climate change is to blame for the decrease in the size of the horse. This species was once abundant in the Bighorn Basin of Wyoming, where wild mustangs roam freely today. Because smaller mammals tend to shed body heat more easily, scientists say that the horses decreased in size due to natural selection; the larger horses couldn’t cope with the heat as well as the smaller horses, so the smaller horses thrived. The scientists are also saying that this is a trend in mammals, and that we will experience a shrinkage in many mammals as we undergo our own global warming.
This article relates to humanity because we are experiencing global warming, so the we as mammals could undergo the same shrinkage as the sifrhippus did 50 million years ago. Many other species that we live with will also decrease in size as the climate increases.
Overall I enjoyed this article because it relates to humanity as a whole and global warming. I think that the author could have gone more into detail explaining how the natural selection occurred among the sifrhippus.
Gorman, James. "A Tiny Horse That Got Even Tinier as the Planet Heated Up." New York Times. 23 Feb. 2012. Web. 25 Mar. 2012.
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/science/sifrhippus-the-first-horse-got-even-tinier-as-the-planet-heated-up.html
http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/24/science/sifrhippus-the-first-horse-got-even-tinier-as-the-planet-heated-up.html
Lucas did a great job summarizing the article, “A Tiny Horse That Got Even Tinier as the Planet Heated Up,” by James Gorman. Lucas summarized the article clearly and to the point by explaining important details from the article. For example, Lucas wrote that Sifrhippus (the first horse alive 56 million years ago) shrank from about twelve pounds average weight to about eight and a half pounds as the climate warmed over many years. Lucas also connected the topic of mammals shrinking due to global warming with present day (since present day Earth is experiencing extreme warming). Lastly, he did a good job criticizing the article by stating, “I think that the author could have gone more into detail explaining how the natural selection occurred among the Sifrhippus.”
ReplyDeleteEven though Lucas overall did a great job on his review, Lucas could have investigated more about this theory and explain its contradicting point of view. Also, he could have researched about what if the temperature was decreasing, and what would happen to the animals if the Earth was experiencing a global cooling. Would mammals shrink if climate was extremely cold? In addition, Lucas could have written about the evidence scientists found to propose their theory.
This article was interesting, and it surprised me a lot. I never knew that climate change is to blame for the decrease in the size of Sifrhippus horses. Also, I learned that this shrinkage, due to the warming of Earth, will be a trend in mammals, especially as we undergo our own global warming.
This review done by Lucas was well written, descriptive and an easy read. That's something I always enjoy about reading, if I can get into it and understand the language and relate to the article, I'm glad to read. One thing that was presented well was the evidence that mammals will shrink over the years, due to proof from the Sifrhippus. The idea that global warming will cause all mammals to shrink was an interesting theory too. Also, the idea of how the Sifrhippus shrunk based on natural selection was an interesting trait to be given.
ReplyDeleteI thought the review could've been improved in a couple areas. For example, I believe the information on how the horse getting smaller over the years caused the climate to get hotter should be more thorough. I didn't really understand how that effected the environment so much. Also, how did the Sifrhippus become extinct?
One thing that surprised me a ton, was how light the horse was said to be. I did some quick research, and found that the average domestic horse can weigh up to 1200 lbs! It's hard to imagine the size and physical traits of the Sifrhippus when the horses we see today are so much larger.
I think my classmate, Lucas Carneiro, did a very good job of summarizing the article, “A Tiny Horse That Got Even Tinier as the Planet Heated Up.” He really described what happened to the horses over time very well, and made it all very easy to understand. He also explained how the climate change affects the mass of the horse because I did not understand how that would happen at first. He also explained how it relates to humanity well and it is interesting that it may be possible for humans to get smaller as global warming continues.
ReplyDeleteOne thing that Lucas could have done better was to go into more detail on why the Sifrhippus went extinct because he didn’t explain that very well. Also it would have been interesting to see how the animals responded when temperatures decreased again because Lucas did not include that in his review.
Overall this was a very good review and a very interesting article and I would have never even known that a horse that small ever existed. I think it is very weird that the Sifrhippus is related to a normal horse in any way because horses are very large and the thought of a 10 pound horse is insane.
This article was pretty well reviewed. It was mainly about the effects of climate change like global warming on entire species of animals, offering the example of the Sifrhippus, which was the world’s smallest horse before becoming extinct. The reviewer does a good job of speaking concisely and to the point about the topic. Also, he explained the reasoning behind the general ideas like how global warming can lead to the shrinkage of animals. Not to mention, the connection to today was pretty solid. The Sifrhippus just serves as an example of an issue possibly applicable to other species closer to home.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of improvement I would suggest a couple things. First off, the reviewer seemed to be lacking detail. The explanation of the actual research done could have been more thorough. Also, I would suggest for the reviewer to stick more to the specifics and facts instead of enveloping the summary with generalizations.
Nonetheless, this article seemed pretty cool, and I didn’t know that global warming affected animal populations this way. Scary thought.
I read the review, by my classmate Lucas Carneiro, on the article ““A Tiny Horse That Got Even Tinier as the Planet Heated Up” by James Gorman. Lucas was extremely quick to the point in his summary of the article, and made the facts very clear to understand. For instance, Lucas made the fact that Sifrhippus (The 56 million year old horse) actually shrank from an average of 12 pounds, to about 8 pounds as the climate began to heat up. I did like how Lucas critiqued the writer and how Gorman should have gone into more detail about the natural selection of Sifrhippus. I also enjoyed how Lucas compared the shrinking animals 50 million years ago, to the mammals today. This is great because the Earth is going through a slight warming period.
ReplyDeleteAlthough Lucas did a great job reviewing this article, Lucas could have been better in a few areas. For example, I thought Lucas should have gone into more detail about the facts behind how the horse shrunk due to the climate. I just didn’t fully understand how the horse shrunk and what temperature does it need to be for a mammal to shrink. Also I would really want to know if the shrinkage to the Sifrhippus was the reason why it became extinct.
I really enjoyed this review by my peer Lucas Carneiro. I thought it was cool how Lucas related the Sifrhippus to modern horses and would have never known that if I didn’t read this article. I think it is extremely cool that there used to be a horse that is an average of 10 pounds. Also I think that this review is great because when I think of horses now, I will think of the Sifrhippus and how it is related to the modern horse.
Just finishing my classmate, Lucas Carneiro’s, review on the New York Times article by James Gorman, I think he did a great job in numerous aspects. One thing I think Lucas did particularly well is giving a detailed background and explanation of what the Sifrhippus horse was. It is a very complex animal and a proper explanation was a necessity. Thankfully, Lucas provided this. Another thing I think he did well is explaining why the Sifrhippus horse was targeted so specifically by the rising temperatures of the planet. It was confusing why only a small species of horses were affected in such a way and Lucas’s explaining made it easy to understand. A final thing I think Lucas did well was relating this topic of study to humanity in general. I was wondering why this study was so important and then Lucas related it to how it affects us humans and it was clearly understandable.
ReplyDeleteOne thing Lucas could have improved on is to further explain how these scientists tested this study and ultimately how they discovered the fact that the increasing temperature harmed the growth of this extinct horse. Another thing I think Lucas could have done better is giving a definition of what natural selection was as it played a key role in how the horses were affected and some readers that don’t know what natural selection in might be thrown off by this.
Overall I thought Lucas did a great review on an interesting article and there were many new ideas and facts that were introduced to me. One thing I did not know was the fact that the increasing temperatures of global warming could affect the growth of certain animals on the planet. This is surprising and a little scary to me as global warming is becoming such an increasing issue nowadays.
I thought that Lucas Carneiro’s review of the article, “A Tiny Horse That Got Even Tinier as the Planet Heated Up”, was concise and informative. I like how Lucas chose a specific topic about global warming, which was the shrinking of the Sifrhippus, the explained was the smallest horse before it went extinct 50 million years ago. This was very relevant because global warming is an important issue today. Lucas makes sure to relate to the modern world, stating that scientists say that the Sifrhippus trend could be a model for other mammals today. Lucas also did a great job explaining why the horse gradually lost its size. He explains how smaller horses decreased due to size because of natural selection and that the larger horses couldn’t cope with the heat. Another thing I liked about Lucas’ review was that it identified the weak point of the article, which was the describing the process of natural selection.
ReplyDeleteI think Lucas did a good job giving an example of a mammal that was affected by global warming, but I think that this review would have been better if Lucas did some research and found some trends with humans. For example, he could have found some information on the structures of humans during time periods with varying temperatures. Another thing Lucas could have improved on was explaining the evidence that the scientists use to support their theory.
I thought this article was a clear example of how animals will adapt to their environments, and I find the procedure very interesting. It makes me wonder how humans have evolved and will evolve to match our past and future climates.
Lucas did a great job or reviewing ‘A tiny horse that got even tinier as the plant heated up.’ He reviewed the article by getting straight to the point, which was great for me to understand the article more clearly. It was great to see his responses to the article and that he gave a small amount of background information about the Sifrhippus horse.
ReplyDeleteEven though the article was reviewed well done, he could have talked more about the contradicting point of view and I think it would have been better if he had been more specific in his review.
Overall, I found it very interesting that global warming will cause all mammals to shrink and that Sifrhippus shrunk based on natural selection. I did not know this before reading the article. I found this a very interesting and different to others I have read before.