During the Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 5/4 transition, the global climate changed from an interglacial to a glacial state, and hence it was characterized by high-amplitude climate changes. High-resolution stalagmite records can potentially improve our understanding of climate change during this transition. Here we use a high-precision 230Th-dated, 50-yr-resolution stalagmite δ18O record from Yangkou

The middle Cambrian is an important period for the decline of metazoans and the resurgence of microbialites. Based on the analysis of carbon and oxygen isotopes, detrital zircon UPb dating, and geochemical analysis, the middle Cambrian DICE (Drumian carbon isotope excursion) event was identified and its relationship with microbialites and sea-level changes was discussed in the Tarim Basin. The DICE

We investigate if and how diets of gray wolves from the Yukon Territory, Canada, have changed from the Pleistocene (>52.8 ka BP to 26.5 ka BP [±170 y BP]) to the recent Holocene (1960s) using dental microwear analysis of carnassial teeth and stable isotope analyses of carbonates (δ13CCO3 and δ18OCO3) and collagen (δ13Ccol and δ15Ncol) from bone. We find that dental microwear patterns are similar between

The varved sediments of Lake Montcortès (central pre-Pyrenees) have provided a continuous high-resolution record of the last ca. 3000 years. Previous chronological and sedimentological studies of this record have furnished detailed paleoenvironmental reconstructions. However, palynological studies are only available for the last millennium, when the landscape around the lake had already been transformed

The rise and spread of tropical grasslands was a signal event in the Cenozoic, causing many ungulates to evolve adaptations to a diet of graminoid tissues, or graminivory. In parallel, a lineage of monkeys (Theropithecus) is distinguished among primates for its large size and commitment to graminivory, a trait expressed by species throughout the Plio-Pleistocene fossil record and T. gelada, the sole

The locality of El Salt (Alcoi, Spain) is a key site for understanding the extirpation of Neanderthals in the eastern part of Iberia. In this paper, we analyse an assemblage of amphibians and reptiles from Stratigraphic Unit V (45.2 ± 3.4 ka to 44.7 ± 3.4 ka), which corresponds to one of the last regional records of Neanderthals, to improve knowledge of the palaeoecology and palaeoclimate of this event

During IODP expedition 359 multiple holes recovered Modern to Middle Miocene sediments from the Kardiva Drift which is strongly influenced by monsoonally-driven currents. Two holes continued below the drift into Lower Miocene sediments that were deposited under rather different conditions following Oligocene subsidence of the Maldives Ridge. These sediments are characterised by marked alternation between

Raman spectroscopic analyses of thermally altered organic materials can be used to assess the paleothermometry of the sedimentary deposits. Although this technique has been widely applied to diverse microfossils, macroscopic vertebrate fossils have been neglected. In this paper, we show that fossil eggshells can be used for this purpose by demonstrating the paleothermometric potential of diverse amniotic

A continuously cored well covering the Carboniferous-Permian Benxi, Taiyuan, and Shanxi formations in the eastern Ordos Basin provides a rare window into environmental conditions of the marine-continental transitional strata. Integration of petrographic, mineralogical, and high-resolution geochemical data allows marine-continental investigating the depositional environment, organic abundance, detrital

Permineralized woods of Nothofagoxylon scalariforme from Miocene strata (Río Leona Formation) that crop out in the southwestern region of Santa Cruz Province, Argentina were studied. Six types of borings are described, filled with coprolites or homogeneous excrement masses (frass). Based on size, shape, orientation and content, the borings can be related to oribatid mites (Acari: Oribatida), beetles

The well-14C–dated sediment core HM retrieved from the Yangtze River mouth was used to reconstruct the Holocene sedimentary–ecological complex of its incised valley. The complete Holocene sedimentary facies that were exclusively formed in the valley and evidenced by bio-geochemical measurement, showed the Latest Pleistocene fluvial facies to the Early-Holocene marine facies, and the Middle-Late Holocene

Biological and ecological changes across the Paleogene hyperthermal events were accompanied by dramatic shifts in sedimentation systems in both marine and continental environments. This study investigates the formation of authigenic glauconite within a biostratigraphically constrained section encompassing the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM). Paleogene transgressive shelf deposits in the Jaisalmer

Earth experienced warm temperatures during the Pliocene followed by a substantial cooling that culminated in an ice age climate at the beginning of the Pleistocene. This warmth had a significant impact on global environments and ocean circulation. The collision of the Indian and Eurasian plates further amplified this climatic pattern. The southern Indian Ocean was severely impacted by these changes

Thick Miocene lacustrine deposits have been identified across the Qaidam Basin on the northeast Tibetan Plateau, indicative of a relatively unified megalake then. How this megalake evolved at its final stage and associated controlling factors, e.g., global climate or tectonic uplift, remain largely elusive. Here we use the KC-1 well, drilled at the depo-center of the western Qaidam Basin, to investigate

In arid and semi-arid climates, soil development is strongly influenced by seasonal patterns and biogenic activity, and often results in pervasive pedogenic horizons consisting of highly concentrated carbonate. In Brazil, such horizons enriched in calcium carbonate are common and relatively well-studied in paleosols of the Upper Cretaceous Marília Formation. However, detailed analyses on the sequence

The stratigraphic record of the northern Indian margin documents tectonic extension and magmatic activity during the Late Triassic. The geodynamic process and the paleogeographic implications of this event remain, however, incompletely understood. This study presents new stratigraphic, petrographic, geochronologic and geochemical data from a mixed carbonate-clastic Upper Triassic succession of the

Timor is part of the non-volcanic Outer Banda Arc with chaotic geology in the late Neogene collision zone between Sundaland (Southeast Eurasia) and the Australian continent. Confusion in the distinction between Triassic, Jurassic and Cenozoic shallow-marine carbonate units has led to a lack of appreciation of the widespread extent of Triassic carbonate-platform facies, at least in Timor-Leste. It also

Over the past decade, sclerochronological research has continued to develop rapidly and is diversifying with respect to methods, taxa, geographic coverage as well as temporal depth. Chonologically aligned environmental records from bivalves, gastropods, coralline algae, corals, and many other periodically formed biogenic hard parts are integrated to build networks across broad spatial domains and trophic

The Rancho La Brea locality is world famous for asphaltic deposits that trapped and preserved late Pleistocene megafauna over the last 50,000 years. This wealth of paleontological data allows for detailed investigation into paleoecological changes through the last glacial maximum into the Holocene. Here, we used dental mesowear analyses to infer dietary behavior in Bison antiquus, Equus occidentalis

The middle–late Cambrian is a key interval between the Cambrian Explosion and the Great Ordovician Biodiversification Event (GOBE) that marks a major biologic evolutionary transition in the geologic record. Diversity (i.e. richness) patterns in this interval show that macro-biota experienced evolutionary setbacks for the first time. However, relatively little attention has been paid to this interval

The Harbin loess in Northeast China, located in the easternmost part of the Eurasian loess belt, has great potential to reconstruct the aridity history of the Songnen Plain and to reveal its dynamic process. However, the relationship between coupled tectonic-climate-drainage evolution and the aridification in the Songnen Plain is currently poorly understood. In this study, we present a high-resolution

The opening of the Central Atlantic Ocean was accompanied by ascending plume zones that generated large igneous provinces (LIPs), such as the Central Atlantic Magmatic Province (CAMP), with voluminous lava flows and outpourings. One of the best records of the CAMP in the West Gondwana is the Jurassic volcanic-sedimentary succession exposed in the western Parnaíba Basin, northern Brazil. Diagenetic

Palaeo-oceanographical archives in the Mediterranean Sea indicate the occurrence of Sapropel depositions, which are characteristic of anoxic bottom conditions and of a stratified sea. The impact of such drastic changes in the thermohaline circulation of the Mediterranean Sea on the large-scale circulations in the North Atlantic basin is not fully understood. Here we evaluate the impact of a direct

The geometry and kinematics of first-order structural systems on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are key to understanding how the continental crust and lithosphere deformed during the India-Asia collision. The Altyn Tagh Fault (ATF), which is a large-scale fault bounding the northern edge of the Tibetan Plateau (NTP), absorbed as much as one-third of the total convergence in the collision between India and

The Santo André lagoon is located on the southern west coast of Portugal, about 80 km south of Lisbon. Although the beach barrier separating the lagoon from the open sea was occasionally breached in the past and has artificially been opened on an annual basis for the last decades, the lagoon still represents an appropriate geo-bio-archive for reconstructing the Holocene palaeoenvironmental evolution

Carina, a sharp extension of the basal margin in some chitinozoans recalling a “skirt”, is a primary character used for classifying chitinozoans at the genus level. However, little is known about this structure. In this study, we present new observations on the carina ultrastructure in the chitinozoan genus Cyathochitina that was investigated by using novel imaging techniques on three-dimensional specimens

To assess the potential of long-lived freshwater bivalve shells as a proxy for river environments, we examined daily and annual growth increments and analysed trace elements in the shells of Margaritifera laevis collected alive from the Shiribetsu River, located in the central western region of Hokkaido, Japan. The sum of the daily growth lines within a single annual increment corresponded to the days

Meteorological data indicate that the increase in temperature at high-elevation sites with the background of global warming is much higher than the global average. However, there are few studies trying to evaluate temperature changes in high elevational areas over longer time scales. Here, we use brGDGTs in a sediment core collected from Hongyuan Peatland (3503 m a.s.l.), to reconstruct an independently-dated

Results of conodont-based δ18Ophos studies from two core sections in Estonia (Mehikoorma-421 and Valga-10) indicate that the pre-Hirnantian Late Ordovician was characterized by a general cooling trend: a rapid climate cooling in the early Sandbian and a less intense cooling in the late Sandbian through Katian. During this time interval, sea-surface temperatures probably decreased by up to 9o C. This

Evidence of wildfires in deep time is preserved as fossilised charcoal fragments in the rock record and inertinite macerals in coal. Historically, charcoal reflectance has been utilised to assess the formation temperature of these charcoals, and thus burning intensities of prehistoric fires. This is achieved by quantifying reflectance variability as a function of changes in charcoal microstructure

Pliocene body fossils from Santa Maria Island, Azores, have been studied for decades, but only more recently have ichnofossils received their due attention. Calcareous Pliocene deposits from the Baía de Nossa Senhora section contain numerous, diverse, well-preserved natural casts of invertebrate borings. The study of this type of fossils adds to knowledge on the dispersal of benthic faunas across oceans

Hemudu is a famous archaeological site with the earliest rice remains unearthed in East China and represents a classic example of how Neolithic people managed coastal farmland. However, appreciation of human adaptation to Holocene sea-level changes has been hampered by low-resolution chronology due to lack of datable materials in coastal sediments. Correlation of paleomagnetic directions and intensity

This study traces coastal sand dune development processes in East Asia during the Holocene to understand climate and environmental changes. We used optically stimulated luminescence (OSL) dating to examine periods of activation and stabilization of dunes along the western coast of the Korean Peninsula. The results from the Taean Chollipo, Seocheon Dasari, and Gochang Sabanri dunes were then compared

The Cenozoic sedimentary succession of the Song Hong Basin, offshore North Vietnam is poor in marine microfossils, especially in the early Miocene and Oligocene and subsequently is poorly dated. However, it is rich in terrestrially derived pollen, spores, and freshwater algae. Biostratigraphic assemblages from two wells, termed Well A and B, have been evaluated using the approach of sequence biostratigraphy

Radiodonts are a morphologically and ecologically diverse clade of stem-group euarthropods that occupied numerous ecological niches in early animal ecosystems. Many Cambrian taxa are considered apex predators, primarily due to the possession of raptorial frontal appendage, though sweep and filter-feeding examples were also prevalent. Four major families have been distinguished including Anomalocarididae

In the Early Jurassic, a large-scale transgression occurred on the South China continental margin (SCCM), affected by the initiation of Paleo-Pacific subduction. This transgression significantly influenced the source areas and transport mode of Lower Jurassic sediments in the SCCM. This study discussed the differences in the major source areas among the western, central, and eastern SCCM and constructed

The Early Paleozoic paleogeographic locations of the Tibetan terranes in Gondwana remain poorly constrained. This study reports petrology, zircon LA-ICP-MS U-Pb ages, whole-rock major and trace element compositions, and Sr-Nd-Hf isotopic data for the gneissic granites in the Amdo microcontinent, central Tibetan Plateau. LA-ICP-MS zircon U-Pb dating yielded Cambrian ages of ca. 500 Ma for the granites

The discovery of a tusk and a rib of a straight-tusked elephant within layer 13 II-2c3 of the famous Lower Palaeolithic archaeological site Schöningen (district Helmstedt, Lower-Saxony, Germany) provided the reason for studying the climatic and ecological conditions of this part of the Middle Pleistocene Reinsdorf sequence in high resolution in relation to new chronometric data. Sediment, pollen, aquatic

The Cretaceous/Palaeogene Boundary (KPgB) represents one of the five major mass extinctions in Earth's history, and determining the nature of associated environmental change and biotic recovery is critical for understanding the history of life on our planet. To explore that, we examined the distributions of selected biomarkers (n-alkanes, acyclic isoprenoids, steranes and hopanes), organic and carbonate

Palaeosalinity (S*) estimates rely on calculations stemming from the oxygen isotopic composition of foraminiferal shells (δ18OF) preserved in ocean sediments. δ18OF depends on palaeo in-situ temperature (T*) and the oxygen isotopic composition of seawater (δ18Osw), which in turn depends on various physical oceanographic conditions including evaporation, precipitation, advection, and freshwater fluxes

Magnetic susceptibility measurements play a key role in Quaternary studies. Magnetic proxies, such as low field and frequency-dependent magnetic susceptibility, are widely applied in the reconstruction of terrestrial paleoclimate, e.g., in the study of loess-paleosol successions. In general, the interpretation of loess magnetic susceptibility signals is based on two commonly accepted models: the pedogenic

During the Early Toarcian, deposition of organic carbon-rich-shales occurred throughout the epicontinental sea across Europe. Climate instability and high extinction rates in the marine realm were associated with profound environmental changes. The Toarcian Oceanic Anoxic Event (T-OAE) has been linked to the injection of greenhouse gases (e.g. oceanic methane) into the atmosphere triggered by the emplacement

To address long-standing questions concerning Southern Hemisphere climate dynamics and palaeoecological change in southern Africa, a Late Glacial-Holocene alluvial sediment sequence from the relatively dry interior year-round rainfall zone in South Africa was investigated. The study site borders the Fynbos biome and Succulent Karoo biome ecotone, and comprises a rare stratified sequence of sandy and

Sedimentary deposits of the Great Australian Superbasin, extensively developed across eastern Australia and covering almost a fifth of the continent, chronicle a rich record of palaeoenvironmental changes in northeastern Gondwana through the Jurassic and basal Cretaceous (Berriasian to Barremian). However, aside from the Surat Basin in the southeastern sector of the superbasin, little of this record

The Cretaceous climate was characterized by arid and semiarid conditions in different parts of the world. Climatic changes for the Early to Late Cretaceous had been reported by many authors in North America, East Asia, Africa, and South America due to the geological evolution of Laurasia and Gondwana. In South America, the Bauru Basin, located in Brazil, is one of the most critical places to develop

Upwelling is a dynamic oceanographic process that brings cold, nutrient-rich waters to the surface. These nutrients encourage primary productivity, forming the foundation of coastal food webs and the fisheries depending on them. Understanding past variability in the occurrence of upwelling and primary productivity may offer insight into how upwelling dynamics and ecosystem productivity could vary in

The core area of Central Asia (CA), an arid Westerlies-dominated area, is crucial for analysis of interregional atmospheric circulation interactions along the Eurasian mid-latitude belt. However, it remains unclear how climate and environment in this region evolved during the Quaternary Period. Based on the articles in this special issue, this review recapitulates the spatio-temporal distribution of

Members of the Order Notoungulata are among the most diverse and common mammals in South America during the Cenozoic. Several lineages within notoungulates (e.g., suborders Typotheria and Toxodontia) show a tendency for increased body sizes and hypsodonty during the last 50 Myr. However, the timing, evolutionary mode, and drivers of such tendencies are not entirely understood. In this paper, we use

Climate model simulations of the PETM (Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum) warming have mainly focused on replicating the global thermal response through greenhouse forcing, i.e. CO2, at levels compatible with observations. Comparatively less effort has gone into assessing the skill of models to replicate the response of the hydrologic cycle to the warming, particularly on regional scales. Here we have

Large variations in pre-nuclear 129I/127I ratios in terrestrial environments have been observed, but few investigations have been carried out on how the isotopic composition varies and how it is affected by the terrestrial environment. In this work, lake and river sediments were studied for the first time with the aim of exploring the possible connections between the natural iodine isotopic composition

To summary Central Asian paleoclimate history and its forcing mechanisms, we launched the special issue of “Central Asian paleoclimate” in 2019. After peer-reviewed by experts in relevant fields, 28 manuscripts have been accepted for publication. Considering the demand of article numbers in one special issue, we classify these papers into two parts based on the involved study areas i.e. Core Area of

We analyse changes in terrigenous sedimentation along the northwestern Australian margin to monitor the latitudinal migration of the Intertropical Convergence Zone (ITCZ) and the shifting boundaries of climatic belts during the last four glacial cycles. We integrate high-resolution X-ray fluorescence (XRF) scanning elemental records from Core SO257–18548 and International Ocean Discovery Program Site

The Devonian is known for the earliest dispersal of extensive wildfires, but the spatiotemporal diversification pattern and process have not been studied in detail. We synthesize a total of 65 global wildfire occurrences based on fossil charcoals and geochemical (biomarker) evidence from 10 paleogeographic areas across 10 time bins (Lochkovian–late Famennian). Stratigraphically, the highest number

The early Cambrian was an important interval in Earth history, marked by significant evolution of both life and the marine environments it inhabited. While enhanced hydrothermal activity has been proposed as a trigger for ecosystem perturbations in the early Cambrian, it remains unclear how intense and how long such perturbations may have been. To address this, we examined mercury (Hg) concentrations

Conodont microfossils record seawater strontium isotope values (87Sr/86Sr), permitting chemostratigraphic correlation for tectonic and climatic reconstructions of the Paleozoic and early Mesozoic (541–201 Ma). Laser ablation multiple collection inductively coupled plasma mass spectrometry (LA MC-ICP-MS) can provide rapid, high spatial resolution 87Sr/86Sr analysis of conodont bioapatite but has not

Asian aridification during the Cenozoic was strongly related to moisture flux modulated by sea incursion and the retreat fluctuations of the proto-Paratethys Sea via the Westerlies. However, the extents of the sea incursions are poorly constrained, and there is a lack of sedimentary records beyond the Central Asian basins. The Middle to Late Cretaceous Simao Basin and the Khorat Plateau in Southeast

Two boreholes, both about 16 m-deep, have been drilled in the Garigliano Plain, a coastal-alluvial plain located at the boundary between southern Latium and northern Campania, Italy. The drill holes have been planned and carried out in the southern part of the plain, near to the bordering ridge of Mount Massico. The multidisciplinary analyses performed on sediment samples from both cores revealed the