How has global warming influenced evolution in the past?

We know that stable environments tend to provide fewer opportunities for new species to emerge. Fossil evidence from past extinctions, show that the disappearance of some species created a niche for new species to flourish.

A recent discovery has rewritten our understanding of how we evolved on this planet. New research suggests that the ancestors of all mammals on Earth diversified as a result of a global warming. It contradicts the previously accepted theory that a mass extinction event that wiped out the dinosaurs 65 million years ago prompted the rapid rise of the mammals that we see today. The research team worked for over a decade to compile a ‘tree of life’ from existing fossil records and new molecular analyses. Andy Purvis from Imperial College London explained:

Our research has shown that for the first ten or fifteen million years after the dinosaurs were wiped out, present day mammals kept a very low profile, while other types of mammals were running the show. It looks like a later bout of global warming may have kick-started today's diversity – not the death of the dinosaurs.