Explain this to me please. Talk.origin article on Micro and Macro

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Thinking about it, that kind of makes sense. I am hard pressed to see how any population of organisms beyond simple algae or bacteria could have survived on the ice itself long enough to adapt. We're talking a frigid, sterile wasteland similar to the interior of Antarctica. Any population caught in front of the expanding ice front would be forced to either habitat track or go extinct. It was relatively quick process in any terms. Sorry if this sort of begs your question. Maybe someone else might have a better answer.

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No, I don't think that begs my question too much at all. I think you answered my suspicions nicely. I often wondered if the short time period of an ice age would render any real evidence of speciation. But as you pointed out, extinction and relocation are more prevalent, which are more or less secondary/tertiary effects to speciation.Much appreciated!

To Quetzel or anyone else interested in ice age extinctions:I honestly do not mean to thread hijack, but I wanted to post one more interesting thing about the ice ages (the Ordivician in particular), and a possible explanation to mass extinction. A recent article in my local newspaper outlined some research done at my beloved alma mater:News, Sports, Jobs - Lawrence Journal-World: news, information, headlines and events in Lawrence, KansasHere's a more detailed description of the research: System Unavailable Never even knew anything about gamma-ray bursts being a possibility.Apologies for steering off-road. Back on the micro/macro topic.