Study: Dinosaurs spread as forests shrank

Researchers at the University of London and University of Bristol say in the Carboniferous period North America and Europe lay at Earth's equator and were covered by steamy rainforests until global warming brought about their fragmentation and collapse, kicking off an evolutionary explosion among reptiles, BBC News reported.

"Climate change caused rainforests to fragment into small 'islands' of forest," Howard Falcon-Lang from the University of London says.
"This isolated populations of reptiles, and each community evolved in separate directions, leading to an increase in diversity."

The fossil record of reptiles before and after the collapse of the rainforests showed they became more diverse and even changed their diets as they struggled to adapt to a rapidly changing climate and environment, the researchers say.

"This is a classic ecological response to habitat fragmentation," Mike Benton from the University of Bristol says.

"You see the same process happening today whenever a group of animals becomes isolated from its parent population."

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