scholarly journals Eocene Western European endemic genus Thaumastosaurus: new insights into the question “Are the Ranidae known prior to the Oligocene?”

PeerJ ◽  
2018 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. e5511 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davit Vasilyan
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Endemic Genus ◽  
Tropical Conditions ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
First Occurrence ◽  
Grande Coupure ◽  
Climate Evolution ◽  
Latest Eocene

Background Amphibians, due to their ecophysiological peculiarities, have a physiology dependent on environmental conditions and sensitively respond to their changes. Here, the oldest record of the genus Thaumastosaurus is described, whose fossil record known exclusively from Western Europe is discussed in the scope of the climatic changes of 33.5–40.5 Ma. Results In the present paper, the fossil remains of the genus from three localities in Switzerland (11 samples overall) have been studied and referred to the species Thaumastosaurus bottii. Its stratigraphic distribution has been revised and summarised. The studied localities present the stratigraphically oldest and the most eastern occurrences of the genus Thaumastosaurus. Eocene probable ranids (Ranidae indet./Rana sp./? Rana sp.) from Europe could be referred to Thaumastosaurus. Discussion Their first occurrence of ranids most likely coincides with a warm phase of the global climate at 40 Ma, as tropical conditions were prevailing in Europe. As a result of the gradual cooling of the global climate, the tropical conditions in Europe were replaced by drier open habitats towards the latest Eocene at 34 Ma, when the latest occurrence of the European endemic genus Thaumastosaurus is known. Taking the fossil record and the climate evolution of that time into account, it can be concluded that Thaumastosaurus represents one of the groups among the vertebrates that disappeared during the large extinction event at the Eo–Oligocene transition, known as the Grande Coupure. The fossil finds of the genus from the studied localities allow to refer the previously suggested Eocene true frogs to the genus Thaumastosaurus, hereby stating the arrival of the true frog family Ranidae by the genus Pelophylax in Europe from the east at the earliest Oligocene.

A coupled multi-proxy and process modelling approach for extraction of quantitative terrestrial ecosystem information from speleothems

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Franziska Lechleitner ◽  
Christopher C. Day ◽  
Oliver Kost ◽  
Micah Wilhelm ◽  
Negar Haghipour ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Soil Respiration ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystem ◽  
Terrestrial Ecosystems ◽  
Clear Correlation ◽  
Northern Spain ◽  
Regional Temperature ◽  
Global Carbon

<p>Terrestrial ecosystems are intimately linked with the global climate system, but their response to ongoing and future anthropogenic climate change remains poorly understood. Reconstructing the response of terrestrial ecosystem processes over past periods of rapid and substantial climate change can serve as a tool to better constrain the sensitivity in the ecosystem-climate response.</p><p>In this talk, we will present a new reconstruction of soil respiration in the temperate region of Western Europe based on speleothem carbon isotopes (δ<sup>13</sup>C). Soil respiration remains poorly constrained over past climatic transitions, but is critical for understanding the global carbon cycle and its response to ongoing anthropogenic warming. Our study builds upon two decades of speleothem research in Western Europe, which has shown clear correlation between δ<sup>13</sup>C and regional temperature reconstructions during the last glacial and the deglaciation, with exceptional regional coherency in timing, amplitude, and absolute δ<sup>13</sup>C variation. By combining innovative multi-proxy geochemical analysis (δ<sup>13</sup>C, Ca isotopes, and radiocarbon) on three speleothems from Northern Spain, and quantitative forward modelling of processes in soil, karst, and cave, we show how deglacial variability in speleothem δ<sup>13</sup>C is best explained by increasing soil respiration. Our study is the first to quantify and remove the effects of prior calcite precipitation (PCP, using Ca isotopes) and bedrock dissolution (open vs closed system, using the radiocarbon reservoir effect) from the speleothem δ<sup>13</sup>C signal to derive changes in respired δ<sup>13</sup>C over time. Our approach allows us to estimate the temperature sensitivity of soil respiration (Q<sub>10</sub>), which is higher than current measurements, suggesting that part of the speleothem signal may be related to a change in the composition of the soil respired δ<sup>13</sup>C. This is likely related to changing substrate through increasing contribution from vegetation biomass with the onset of the Holocene.</p><p>These results highlight the exciting possibilities speleothems offer as a coupled archive for quantitative proxy-based reconstructions of climate and ecosystem conditions.</p>

GEOLOGICAL MEMORY OF STARUNJA – AS THE COURSE OF PROTECTION OF THE WORLD NATURAL HERITAGE IN CARPATHIAN REGION OF UKRAINE

2018 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 15-25
Author(s):  
Oleg Adamenko ◽  
Yaroslav Adamenko ◽  
Kateryna Radlovska ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Global Changes ◽  
Upper Pleistocene ◽  
Carpathian Region ◽  
The World ◽  
The Village ◽  
World Natural Heritage

Paleontological location of the Pleistocene fauna of hairy rhinos and mammoths near the village. Starunya Bogorodchany district of Ivano-Frankivsk region (Prykarpathian, Ukraine) is considered as a paleoclimatic rapper of global changes and a stratigraphic "bridge" linking stratigraphic patterns of the Upper Pleistocene of Western Europe and the plain territory of Ukraine. This is important for the reconstruction of global climate change and the transformation of natural and man-made geosystems.

Decoupling of Nw Pacific from Global Climate Evolution Linked to the Mid-Pleistocene Transition and Mid-Brunhes Event

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
A.-S. Jonas ◽  
M.A.C. Kars ◽  
T. Bauersachs ◽  
W. Rübsam ◽  
L. Schwark
Keyword(s):  
Global Climate ◽  
Climate Evolution

Global climate and extinction: evidence from the fossil record

2011 ◽  
pp. 99-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. J. Mayhew
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Record ◽  
Global Climate

scholarly journals Diversity, diets and disparity: determining the effect of the terminal Cretaceous extinction on insect evolution

1992 ◽  
Vol 6 ◽  
pp. 174-174 ◽  
Author(s):  
Conrad C. Labandeira
Keyword(s):  
Data Base ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Taxonomic Diversity ◽  
Flowering Plants ◽  
Flowering Plant ◽  
Plant Interactions ◽  
Insect Evolution ◽  
Leaf Mining ◽  
Extinction Event ◽  
Wood Boring

A considerable amount of research has been devoted toward evaluating the impact of the Cretaceous/Tertiary extinction on terrestrial life. This research has focused primarily on terrestrial vertebrates (primarily dinosaurs), marine invertebrates (notably molluscs and foraminifera), and to a lesser extent, terrestrial vascular plants. Terrestrial arthropods, especially insects, have seldomly been investigated, principally because of an alleged depauperate fossil record. Nevertheless, within the past two decades, some of the most productive and taxonomically diverse insect faunas have originated from Cretaceous amber- and compression-fossil deposits from every continent. Whereas it was once thought that the Cretaceous represented an unknown void in the understanding of insect evolution, now it appears that many extant lineages are traceable to Cretaceous precursors.Three approaches are available for determining the extent of the effect of the terminal Cretaceous extinction event on insects. Assessed for the interval from the Early Cretaceous to the Early Paleogene, these approaches are: (1) establishing the secular pattern of familial- and generic-based taxonomic diversity (macroevolution); (2) recognizing the persistence or eradication of specific insect/vascular plant interactions, such as leaf-mining, wood-boring and pollination (behavior); and (3) establishing temporal trends in the range of mouthpart design, as an indicator of faunal disparity or structural diversity (morphology). These three operationally separate but complimentary approaches allow the advantage of using distinct data bases to bear on a common question. The body-fossil record of insects provides primary data for the taxonomic expansion, steady-state, or contraction of insect faunas. The trace-fossil record of those insect interactions that are coevolved with plant hosts reveals the temporal continuity of highly stereotyped and taxonomically obligate behaviors. Both of these are contrasted to an assessment of insectan structural disparity, herein determined from a robust data base of 30 modern insect mouthpart classes that are traced back in geologic time.A preliminary analysis of each of these three approaches indicates broad agreement–namely that insects were not dramatically affected by the terminal Cretaceous extinction event. First, insects experienced only a modest decline in diversity, about 9 percent at the family level. (The generic level is not yet analyzed.) Second, although the data base is limited, there is no indication of the extinction of major leaf-mining, wood-boring, pollinating or other plant-specific behaviors at the end of the Cretaceous. In fact, leaf-mine morphologies for three lepidopteran families with Cretaceous occurrences are apparently indistinguishable from their modern descendants. Last, of the 30 mouthpart classes occurring during the Paleogene, 28 are represented during the Cretaceous. These data provide strong evidence for a largely uninterrupted continuum of insect faunas across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary as measured by taxonomic diversity, coevolved behavior, and structural disparity.Because of abundant and often intimate associations between insects and flowering plants, these results are consistent with a gradual and not catastrophic change in terrestrial floras across the Cretaceous/Tertiary boundary. Acceptance of a catastrophic extinction of flowering plants during the terminal Cretaceous would necessitate an unprecedented level of host-switching by coevolved insects on contemporaneous plants. This is unlikely, based on evidence from the prolific literature on modern insect/plant interactions. These studies indicate the ubiquity of obligate insect specificity for various secondary chemicals on many flowering plant species.

Linuparus korura n. sp. (Decapoda: Palinura) from the Bortonian (Eocene) of New Zealand

1988 ◽  
Vol 62 (2) ◽  
pp. 245-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
Rodney M. Feldmann ◽  
Robert K. Bearlin
Keyword(s):  
New Zealand ◽  
Fossil Record ◽  
Middle Eocene ◽  
Species Comparison ◽  
Morphological Descriptors ◽  
First Occurrence ◽  
First Time ◽  
Pacific Species

Linuparus (Linuparus) korura n. sp. is described from Bortonian (middle Eocene) rocks in Otaio Gorge, South Canterbury, New Zealand. This discovery represents the first occurrence of the genus in New Zealand and the first notice of a fossil occurrence of the subgenus which is represented by three modern Indo-Pacific species. Comparison of key morphological descriptors suggests that L. korura is related to L. scyllariformis and L. trigonis. A stridulatory mechanism, similar to that seen on modern Linuparus, is described for the first time from the fossil record.

scholarly journals Hominin responses to environmental changes during the Middle Pleistocene in central and southern Italy

2013 ◽  
Vol 9 (2) ◽  
pp. 687-697 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Orain ◽  
V. Lebreton ◽  
E. Russo Ermolli ◽  
A.-M. Sémah ◽  
S. Nomade ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Western Europe ◽  
Southern Italy ◽  
Environmental Changes ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Middle Pleistocene ◽  
Faunal Remains ◽  
Vegetation Dynamic ◽  
Local Climate ◽  
Global Climate Changes

Abstract. The palaeobotanical record of early Palaeolithic sites from Western Europe indicates that hominins settled in different kinds of environments. During the "mid-Pleistocene transition (MPT)", from about 1 to 0.6 Ma, the transition from 41- to 100-ka dominant climatic oscillations, occurring within a long-term cooling trend, was associated with an aridity crisis which strongly modified the ecosystems. Starting from the MPT the more favourable climate of central and southern Italy provided propitious environmental conditions for long-term human occupations even during the glacial times. In fact, the human strategy of territory occupation was certainly driven by the availabilities of resources. Prehistoric sites such as Notarchirico (ca. 680–600 ka), La Pineta (ca. 600–620 ka), Guado San Nicola (ca. 380–350 ka) or Ceprano (ca. 345–355 ka) testify to a preferential occupation of the central and southern Apennines valleys during interglacial phases, while later interglacial occupations were oriented towards the coastal plains, as attested by the numerous settlements of the Roma Basin (ca. 300 ka). Faunal remains indicate that human subsistence behaviours benefited from a diversity of exploitable ecosystems, from semi-open to closed environments. In central and southern Italy, several palynological records have already illustrated the regional- and local-scale vegetation dynamic trends. During the Middle Pleistocene climate cycles, mixed mesophytic forests developed during the interglacial periods and withdrew in response to increasing aridity during the glacial episodes. New pollen data from the Boiano Basin (Molise, Italy) attest to the evolution of vegetation and climate between MIS 13 and 9 (ca. 500 to 300 ka). In this basin the persistence of high edaphic humidity, even during the glacial phases, could have favoured the establishment of a refuge area for the arboreal flora and provided subsistence resources for the animal and hominin communities during the Middle Pleistocene. This could have constrained human groups to migrate into such a propitious area. Regarding the local climate evolution during the glacial episodes, the supposed displacement from these sites could be linked to the environmental dynamics solely due to the aridity increase, rather than directly to the global climate changes.

scholarly journals Concept of a Sino-German Summer School on Multiscale Processes in Oceans and the Atmosphere

Challenges ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 11 (2) ◽  
pp. 24
Author(s):  
Gerrit Lohmann ◽  
Xueen Chen ◽  
Xun Gong ◽  
Shuang Li
Keyword(s):  
Intercultural Competence ◽  
Summer School ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Integrated Approach ◽  
Scientific Culture ◽  
Scientific Disciplines ◽  
Subject Specific ◽  
Internationalization Of Education ◽  
Climate Evolution ◽  
Earth’S System

A concept for an interdisciplinary summer school for “multiscale processes in oceans and the atmosphere” is presented. It aims to deepen students’ understanding of scientific issues as well as their experience in multicultural communication. The theme covers climate evolution, which is partially dominated by far-reaching anthropogenic changes and their possible consequences on the Earth’s system. An integrated approach helps to change rigid subject-specific mindsets among faculties and students and across cultures, so as to broaden their horizons in both research and life. Research has shown, however, that the development of intercultural competence in students does not happen automatically but needs to be fostered and supported. Therefore, a primary goal is also to provide young researchers from several countries (mainly China and Germany) with the opportunity to gain more indepth knowledge on research in Germany, to be exposed to scientific culture, and thus to prepare for foreign research visits either during the PhD phase or as postdoctoral fellows, supporting the internationalization of education and opportunities in marine sciences. Finally, the students have the chance to further develop their scientific profiles by attending scientific talks, lab exercises, and excursions and by combining rigorous scientific disciplines with the awareness of multidisciplinary issues related to the topic of global climate change.

Review lecture - Recent advances in the numerical prediction of weather and climate

1978 ◽  
Vol 363 (1714) ◽  
pp. 297-333 ◽  
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Dioxide ◽  
Mathematical Models ◽  
Western Europe ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Sea Surface ◽  
Nitrous Oxides ◽  
Recent Advances ◽  
Weather And Climate ◽  
Resolution Model ◽  
Trace Chemicals

The lecture describes recent advances in the use of physico-mathematical models to forecast the weather over the Northern Hemisphere for up to 3 days ahead with some general indications of developments up to 6 days in advance. A higher-resolution model is used to predict the evolution of smaller weather systems such as fronts and their associated rainfall over western Europe up to 36 h ahead. Examples of such forecasts, each of which involves some 10 10 numerical operations on the computer, are presented together with their verification by conventional and satellite observations. Complex mathematical models are also being used to simulate the global climate and to assess the probable influence of variations in the Sun’s radiation, the carbon dioxide and dust content of the atmosphere, vegetation, ice and snow cover, and sea surface temperatures. The results of model experiments to investigate the likely impact of man-made activities on the climate, for example the effects of increasing carbon dioxide, and of the release of nitrous oxides, freons and other trace chemicals on the ozonosphere, are described.

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