Fossils and fossil climate: the case for equable continental interiors in the Eocene

Wing, Scott L.; Greenwood, David R.

doi:10.1007/978-94-011-1254-3_5

Cited by 174 publications

(282 citation statements)

References 39 publications

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“…Using pollen to reconstruct climate uses taxonomic identification of the pollen grains to determine possible climatic ranges, based on the climatic range of modern relatives. A similar approach is used for leaves, with the additional application of the presence of palms as indicators of rare frost as an example that has been used with good result (Wing & Greenwood 1993;Mosbrugger & Utescher 1997). Many additional lines of evidence can be brought to bear on the development of tropical rainforest, but these two broad approaches (climatic indicators and taxonomic lineages) are used more often than others because of their application to a broad range of fossil deposits.…”

Section: Definition Of the Archetypal Tropicalmentioning

confidence: 99%

South American palaeobotany and the origins of neotropical rainforests

Burnham

Johnson

2004

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

248

171

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Extant neotropical rainforest biomes are characterized by a high diversity and abundance of angiosperm trees and vines, high proportions of entire-margined leaves, high proportions of large leaves (larger than 4500 mm 2 ), high abundance of drip tips and a suite of characteristic dominant families: Sapotaceae, Lauraceae, Leguminosae (Fabaceae), Melastomataceae and Palmae (Arecaceae). Our aim is to define parameters of extant rainforests that will allow their recognition in the fossil record of South America and to evaluate all known South American plant fossil assemblages for first evidence and continued presence of those parameters. We ask when did these critical rainforest characters arise? When did vegetative parameters reach the level of abundance that we see in neotropical forests? Also, when do specific lineages become common in neotropical forests?Our review indicates that evidence of neotropical rainforest is exceedingly rare and equivocal before the Palaeocene. Even in the Palaeocene, the only evidence for tropical rainforest in South America is the appearance of moderately high pollen diversity. By contrast, North American sites provide evidence that rainforest leaf physiognomy was established early in the Palaeocene. By the Eocene in South America, several lines of evidence suggest that neotropical rainforests were diverse, physiognomically recognizable as rainforest and taxonomically allied to modern neotropical rainforests. A mismatch of evidence regarding the age of origin between sites of palaeobotanical high diversity and sites of predicted tropical climates should be reconciled with intensified collecting efforts in South America. We identify several lines of promising research that will help to coalesce previously disparate approaches to the origin, longevity and maintenance of high diversity floras of South America.

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Section: Definition Of the Archetypal Tropicalmentioning

confidence: 99%

South American palaeobotany and the origins of neotropical rainforests

Burnham

Johnson

2004

Phil. Trans. R. Soc. Lond. B

248

171

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“…The two modern analogue methods applied in this study were the univariate approach LMA (Wolfe 1971(Wolfe ,1979Wing & Greenwood 1993) and the multivariate method CLAMP (Wolfe 1993(Wolfe , 1994. LMA is based on correlations seen in some modern vegetation between the percentage of dicotyledonous leaf forms that have entire (not serrated) margins and mean annual temperature.…”

Section: Quantitative Leaf-based Paleoclimate Signalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This equation is based on data from southeast Asian floras collected by Wolfe (1979) (Wing & Greenwood 1993).…”

Section: Quantitative Leaf-based Paleoclimate Signalsmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Late Cretaceous and Paleocene terrestrial climates of New Zealand: Leaf fossil evidence from South Island assemblages

Kennedy

2003

New Zealand Journal of Geology and Geophysics

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Univariate and multivariate leaf morphologybased analysis of leaf fossil assemblages from localities in the South Island of New Zealand provide quantitative paleoclimate estimates for the terrestrial Late Cretaceous and Paleocene. Favourable growing conditions with a cool to mild temperate climate are inferred for the youngest pollen zone in the Late Cretaceous (PM2) with moderately high precipitation and high dicotyledonous angiosperm diversity. Mean annual temperature estimates of c. 12-16 and c. 7-11°C were produced from northwest Nelson and North Otago PM2 Zone assemblages, respectively. These different temperature estimates most likely reflect differences in age, although geographic differences may also be a factor. Consistent data from three Paleocene assemblages suggest cool-temperate conditions. Mean annual temperature estimates of c. 6-12°C were produced from these Paleocene assemblages. They also had lower dicotyledonous leaf diversity than the Late Cretaceous assemblages, no more than 30 different angiosperm leaf forms.

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“…Model output from NEWVT does not match proxy Ž data estimates of Early Eocene MAT e.g., MAT in the Rocky Mountains is from y8 to y 38C in NEWVT, proxy data estimates of MAT for the same Ž area are 9-248C Wing and Greenwood, 1993; .. Greenwood and Wing, 1995 . This is probably because proxy data are most likely to be preserved in intermontane basins, and a 28 = 28 land surface resolution is too coarse to resolve these basins that most 2 Ž likely occur at a scale smaller than 40,000 km Fig. .…”

Section: Climate Sensitiõity To Changes In Topographymentioning

confidence: 99%