Mid-Miocene cooling and the extinction of tundra in continental Antarctica

Lewis, A.R.; Marchant, D.R.; Ashworth, A.C.; Hedenas, L.; Hemming, S.R.; Johnson, J.V.; Leng, Melanie ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0003-1115-5166; Machlus, M.L.; Newton, A.E.; Raine, I.; Willenbring, J.K.; Williams, M.; Wolfe, A.P.. 2008 Mid-Miocene cooling and the extinction of tundra in continental Antarctica. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, 105 (31). 10676-10680. 10.1073/pnas.0802501105

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Abstract/Summary

A major obstacle in understanding the evolution of Cenozoic climate has been the lack of well dated terrestrial evidence from high-latitude, glaciated regions. Here, we report the discovery of exceptionally well preserved fossils of lacustrine and terrestrial organisms from the McMurdo Dry Valleys sector of the Transantarctic Mountains for which we have established a precise radiometric chronology. The fossils, which include diatoms, palynomorphs, mosses, ostracodes, and insects, represent the last vestige of a tundra community that inhabited the mountains before stepped cooling that first brought a full polar climate to Antarctica. Paleoecological analyses, 40Ar/39Ar analyses of associated ash fall, and climate inferences from glaciological modeling together suggest that mean summer temperatures in the region cooled by at least 8°C between 14.07 ± 0.05 Ma and 13.85 ± 0.03 Ma. These results provide novel constraints for the timing and amplitude of middle-Miocene cooling in Antarctica and reveal the ecological legacy of this global climate transition.

Item Type:	Publication - Article
Digital Object Identifier (DOI):	10.1073/pnas.0802501105
Programmes:	BGS Programmes 2008 > NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory
ISSN:	0027-8424
Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:	This article freely available from PNAS website www.pnas.org
Additional Keywords:	Climate change, Ostracoda, Antarctica, Miocene, Tundra
NORA Subject Terms:	Earth Sciences
Date made live:	08 Oct 2008 13:21 +0 (UTC)
URI:	https://nora.nerc.ac.uk/id/eprint/4499

Item Type:

Publication - Article

Digital Object Identifier (DOI):

10.1073/pnas.0802501105

Programmes:

BGS Programmes 2008 > NERC Isotope Geoscience Laboratory

ISSN:

0027-8424

Additional Information. Not used in RCUK Gateway to Research.:

This article freely available from PNAS website www.pnas.org

Additional Keywords:

Climate change, Ostracoda, Antarctica, Miocene, Tundra