Dinoflagellate cysts and acritarchs are excellent proxies for biostratigraphic and paleoceanographic studies in neritic sequences. However, Neogene marine palynological studies in tropical latitudes are scarce. Here, we analyzed the marine palynological contents (dinoflagellate cysts, acritarchs, foraminiferal test linings and prasinophytes) of 40 samples from a well drilled in northernmost Colombia

Considerable advances have been made in use of tree-ring δ18O for climate reconstructions in Southeast China, the East Asian summer monsoon region. However, the relationships among tree-ring cellulose δ18O (δ18Ocell), local hydroclimate, precipitation δ18O (δ18Opre) and El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) have not yet been fully resolved. The usual interpretation has been that local hydroclimate influences

During the late Eocene–early Oligocene, major changes in the global climate and environment occurred, including decreases in global temperature and the appearance of Antarctic glaciation. These changes marked the transition from early Cenozoic greenhouse conditions to icehouse conditions. Research on this cooling trend in the Atlantic and high-latitude regions has increased, but few reports have studied

The early Cambrian period is characterized by not only the explosive radiation of metazoans, but also several mass extinction events. Mercury (Hg) enrichment is now widely used as a proxy for volcanic input, with implications for the CO2 and temperature to which the biosphere was subject during these events. Here, we report the oldest mercury anomaly records from organic matter in the Phanerozoic,

Subaqueously-registered trackways of marine tetrapods are only rarely preserved; some of the best examples so far come from the Shizishan Member (Member II) of the Guanling Formation (Middle Triassic, Anisian-Ladinian) of Yunnan Province in southwestern China. The unit is well-known for the Luoping Biota including abundant skeletons of marine reptiles. The described footprints consist of impressions

Increasing cases have indicated that oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) appear to have records in terrestrial sediments, which provide valuably high-resolution materials for the debated and challenging issues of OAEs. However, the current works are preliminary and need more geological analyses to test. Here we present a case study in the Lower Jurassic Da'anzhai Member of the Toarcian (ca. 180 Ma) Sichuan

The Oligocene Lower Freshwater Molasse of Switzerland is host to spectacular outcrops of fluvial deposits. In distal areas of the Swiss Molasse Basin, deposits of a north-eastward draining meandering system are exposed. Combined sedimentologic and ichnologic observations in the Chli Sunnhalde and Roggwil quarries allow an improved understanding of animal-substrate interactions in deposits of meandering

Large and tiny Ophiomorpha nodosa Lundgren, 1891 and Thalassinoides suevicus Rieth, 1932, and the postlarval chamber Maiakarichnus currani, are described from the mid-Holocene Destacamento Río Salado Member (northeastern Buenos Aires province, Argentina). Large specimens of O. nodosa consist of variably bifurcated horizontal galleries, connected in some cases by vertical shafts, and lined with pellets

Approximately 4% of just over 5000 conulariids from ten Ordovician formations in the Prague Basin (Czech Republic) exhibit invertebrate epibionts and/or attachment scars. The commonest epibionts are craniid brachiopods followed by bryozoans and edrioasteroids, which are invariably articulated. Less abundant are monoplacophorans, Sphenothallus sp., ?Lichenocrinus sp., and an indeterminate invertebrate

The late Neoproterozoic (~720–541 Ma) tectonic evolution of South China may have included the development of a paleo-ocean basin (the South China Ocean Basin, SCOB) between the Yangtze and Cathaysia blocks. The Niuhe section in the Yongfu area of northern Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, owing to its location on the southeastern margin of the Yangtze Block and its preservation of an alternating succession

Dictyodora has been generally considered an ichnogenus with a restricted temporal range from the Cambrian to the Mississippian. Until now, there have been no reports of Dictyodora after the Mississippian. Here we report on well-preserved and abundant Dictyodora from deep-sea sediments of the Lopingian Maomaolong Formation in West Qinling, central China, which is hitherto the youngest occurrence of

The early Cambrian ocean was marked by significant redox changes, but the detailed redox evolution of seawater and its relationship to biological expansion are not fully understood. Widespread chert successions are present in lower Cambrian deposits on the Yangtze Block, South China, which have great potential to record oceanic chemistry. Here, we analyze rare earth elements (REE) and Si and Fe isotopes

The new ichnospecies of Polykampton georgianum occurs abundantly in a part of the Borjomi Flysch (Upper Paleocene – Lower Eocene) in Georgia, in particular in the 45.3 m thick Ardagani-1 section that is dominated by grey silt- and mudstones having sandstones intercalated. The trace fossil occurs in the middle and upper part of the section. The trace fossil is composed of a median tunnel and side lobes

To better understand the nature and causes of boreal forest change and, in particular, the role of permafrost dynamics, we reconstruct of the recent vegetation history of the Greater Hingan Mountains of northeast China based on a lake sediment core. This core is located in an area of boreal forest underlain by permafrost, and spans a 1000-year warming-to-cooling cycle. Palynological assemblages indicate

Eastern Africa is a key region for studying archaeological, palaeontological, and ecological movements. This region hosts critical developments in hominin and human evolution, the dispersal of food-producing populations across the continent, and some of the largest known contemporary mammalian migrations on the planet. Strontium isotope analysis of biominerals such as tooth enamel, eggshell, and other

Our knowledge about climatic changes at centennial-scale and their causes during the Holocene climatic optimum (HCO) remains poorly constrained. Here, we present δ18O and δ13C records from a precisely dated stalagmite (13.2 to 1.9 kyr BP) from Xiniu Cave, central China. The δ18O record shows a gradual weakening in the strength of the East Asian summer monsoon (EASM) from early to middle Holocene, corresponding

Quaternary saline lake deposits are well formed and widely distributed in the Qaidam Basin, on the northeastern Tibetan Plateau, NW China. Studying these lacustrine salt mineral deposits in closed lakes would improve our understanding of tectonic deformation, Asian interior aridification and monsoon climate associated with global cooling and Tibetan Plateau uplift. Previous paleoclimate records in

The stratigraphy and the fossil assemblage of a Lower Cretaceous ‘Lycoptera Bed’ of the Xinganling Group in Naketa, Arongqi area, Inner Mongolia, China are described, and the paleoenvironment is discussed as it relates to the Jehol Biota. The Naketa fossil bed belongs to the lower part of volcanic-sedimentary Jiufengshan Formation and preserves a typical EEL (Eosestheria-Ephemeropsis trisetalis-Lycoptera

Dental microwear texture (DMT) analysis is commonly applied for dietary reconstruction of vertebrates. The temporal scale on which dietarily informative microscopic wear forms on enamel surfaces is crucial to infer dietary flexibility and seasonality. Microwear is assumed to form shortly before the individual's death, reflecting information pertaining to the last meals consumed (“last supper” effect)

A Greenlandian (Early Holocene) palaeochannel of the Meuse River is described from Autrecourt-et-Pourron in the Ardennes region of northern France. During the Younger Dryas, fluvial deposits represent a high-energy, sinuous palaeochannel, but at the onset of the Holocene, progressive channel abandonment resulted in the establishment of a low-energy meandering river system. Well-dated studies using

We report the sedimentology, palynology, geochemistry, and diatom assemblages of a well-dated succession at Laguna Las Vueltas (LV) on the Atlantic coast of the Fuegian steppe in southern Argentina. The multiproxy analysis offers a unique opportunity to study the evolution of this coastal landscape in relation to past sea level and climate changes in the southern high latitudes. After ca. 19,000 cal yr

Cherts have been considered to be formed mainly through processes involving biosilicification, riverine inputs and hydrothermal activities. In the Permian, massive cherts are widely distributed in South China, bearing significant implications for the reconstruction of paleogeography and paleoceanography of the eastern Paleo-Tethys Ocean. The origin of the Permian cherts in South China, however, remains

Mortality curves are a valuable tool to study taphonomy and to infer population structure in ancient communities; however, they rely on the precise determination of ontogenetic ages of individual animals, which is often uncertain for fragmentary and isolated fossil remains. In this paper, we develop a new protocol to construct mortality curves for fossil rhinocerotids using both tooth rows and isolated

The Early Cretaceous collision between the Lhasa and Qiangtang terranes is one of the critical tectonic events that shaped the southern margin of the Eurasian continent, and that impacted the formation of the Cenozoic Tibetan Plateau. However, how far north this collision affected the structural and sedimentary geology of the Early Cretaceous remains uncertain. To address this issue, we present results

The southern Nullarbor Plain is covered by low amplitude (generally 1–2 m) parallel ridges and swales with variable wavelength (300–900 m). The ridges are stony; the swales hold thin deposits of unconsolidated silt and clay. The ridges and swales have previously been attributed to joint control but are not parallel to joints exposed in cave roofs. Instead, they have a striking similarity to central

For five decades Olduvai Gorge has been a key site to reconstruct and understand the relationship between environmental and landscape conditions and use of affordances by early African hominin populations. Following the first Olduvai Gorge Coring project (OGCP) during 2014, a multiproxy microbiological analysis, which includes phytoliths, pollen, diatoms, sponge spicules and chrysophyte cysts, was

We reconstruct the Holocene vegetation, climate, and archaeological history for drylands of northwestern Patagonia, Argentina, based on multiproxy analysis (plant macrofossil, pollen, and parasites) of rodent middens integrated with a database of 14C dates associated with human occupations. The local scale corresponds to the Huenul paleoecological and archaeological locality, emplaced in north-western

The draining of the herein introduced ancient Lake Elji, and the subsequent erosion of its lacustrine sediments, were necessary precursors to the Late Epipalaeolithic (Natufian) and later settlement of Petra. This study investigates this geological history and relates it to human occupation of the broader region. Widespread carbonates consisting of algal mat deposits, beach rocks, and rhizoliths are

The strong glacial–interglacial similarity between the magnetic susceptibility (MS) of Southern Ocean sediments and Antarctic ice core dust records has often been used to reconstruct Southern Hemisphere atmospheric variability. Although evaluation of various magnetic properties is essential for identifying the magnetic carriers linked to sedimentological variation, detailed magnetic studies are not

This study presents a stable oxygen isotope record of Indian summer monsoon (ISM) variability using cave speleothem carbonate from Baratang Island (Andaman Islands) encompassing the last millennium (from 10th to 19th century CE). The studied interval encompasses two major climatic events; the Medieval Climate Anomaly (MCA) and the Little Ice Age (LIA) as well as the Current Warm Period (CWP). Our data

The loboliths, which previously have been called “plurilocular cystoids” in China, are actually the bulbous roots of scyphocrinoids, which occur only, and are widely distributed, in the uppermost Silurian through the lowermost Devonian. Two quite different types of loboliths can be distinguished, the plate- and cirrus-types loboliths, both of which are significant fossils for the correlation of the

Although the Cenozoic aridification of the Asian interior was of global significance, the timing of its evolution and the drivers remain controversial. However, knowledge of the spatiotemporal pattern of vegetation evolution can inform our understanding of the aridification process. Here, we integrate 58 pollen records with well-constrained chronologies from across Asia, and use the biomization method

History of variability of tropical cyclones (TC) in the North-Western Pacific is critical for understanding impacts of future climatic changes. Natural archives of paleo-typhoon variability can be used to assess how changes in the planetary climatic system during the Holocene could influence TC frequency and intensity in this part of Pacific. Extreme typhoon-related rains are the main cause of catastrophic

We report stable isotopic analyses for dental enamel of fossil mammals from the Miocene (~7.1 Ma, MN13, middle Turolian) Corral de Lobato locality, Guadalajara, Spain, and compare it with adjacent localities of the Iberian Range. This multidisciplinary research allows the assessment of the palaeoenvironmental, palaeoecological and palaeoclimatic conditions that were in place in the central-eastern

A variety of proxies has been studied to document paleoclimatic changes in arid Central Asia (ACA). However, biological archives, which can be directly related to climatic conditions, are still scarce in this region. Here we report records of the total count fossils (TCF) of terrestrial mollusks, organic carbon isotopes (δ13Corg) and loss on ignition (LOI), since the last deglaciation in the Talede

There is increasing evidence that confirms the existence of the Acheulean Techno-complex at sites in Southeast and East Asia, especially for its earliest appearance at ~0.8 Ma; however, these Acheulean sites are characterized by significantly low lithic densities and infrequent Large Cutting Tools (LCTs) (e.g. sites in the Bose Basin). Various hypotheses have been proposed to account for these low

There is a paucity of long and continuous continental records from South East Asia suitable to inform on past changes and underlying causes of the region's climate and associated diverse ecosystem evolution during the late Quaternary. In 2015, the Towuti Drilling Project (TDP) collected a series of sedimentary drill cores from the tectonic, ferruginous, and highly biodiverse Lake Towuti, Sulawesi,

The Pliocene-Quaternary aridification of the Asian interior is key to understanding the impacts of global cooling and Tibetan Plateau uplift and the potential linkage to North Pacific Ocean biochemical processes and global changes. However, there is a lack of detailed continuous Pliocene-Quaternary paleoclimatic records from the Asian interior because most climatic records have been obtained from discontinuous

Stable oxygen isotopes (δ18O) from α-cellulose of peatland plants represent a widely used tool for studying ecological processes and palaeoenvironmental evolution. However, comparison of different regions shows that the climate drivers of δ18O from peat cellulose vary by location. In addition, controversy remains about the parts of plants that are most suitable for analysis. In this study, δ18O from

The Early Triassic is a critical interval recording episodic climatic, environmental, and biotic events after the end-Permian mass extinction. A precise global timescale for this epoch is essential to understand the sequence of events during this crisis. The undefined Induan–Olenekian stage boundary (IOB), long disputed, is a crucial element in providing a high-resolution chronostratigraphic framework

Sedimentological, geochemical and benthic foraminiferal proxies were used to interpret changes of depositional environments in a mud entrapment inside the Guadiana River paleo-valley, northern Gulf of Cadiz, to understand the temporal variability of fluvial flooding events and to detect patterns of latitudinal climatic variability in western Iberia. The period between ca. 5800 and ca. 1250 cal yr BP

This study is a detailed palaeontological and palaeoecological analysis of a middle Givetian (Middle Devonian) high-diversity patch reef located in a platform interior setting in South China. The location is Jiwozhai, Guizhou Province, in the Dushan Formation. A total of 83 species (including 23 undetermined species) belonging to 44 genera of reef organisms were identified, based on a detailed statistical

The Triassic–Jurassic transition interval is marked by enhanced biotic turnover rates in both marine and terrestrial realms. However, limited data from Asia hampers the understanding of global ecosystem response to the end-Triassic mass extinction event. Here, we present significant vegetation and climate changes across the Triassic–Jurassic transition in the eastern Tethys region (southern China)

Middle Devonian (Givetian) rugose corals from the Holy Cross Mountains (Miłoszów), Poland, have been analysed with respect to epibiont colonization patterns. Solitary microconchid tubeworms and colonial bryozoans, hederelloids and ascodictyids numerically dominate on the coral hosts. Moreover, the same taxonomic groups of epibionts dominate both the larger (Heliophyllum, Acanthophyllum, Stringophyllum

Many recent studies focus on the relatively cold and humid interval during the Early Pleistocene Olduvai Subchron (1.95–1.77 Ma), but detailed environmental records for this interval are still rare. Here we present a high-resolution pollen record from the PL02 core (38°55′26.62″N, 106°36′3.82″E) from the Yinchuan Basin of northwestern China to reconstruct vegetation and infer climatic changes. Vegetation

Terrestrial deposits of the Triassic-Jurassic transition are well developed in the Junggar Basin, located in the Haojiagou Valley of Urumqi, Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region of Northwest China. This paper describes the palynology of a 10 m thick lignite bed from the Upper Triassic Haojiagou Formation (Rhaetian) with the aim of reconstructing the palaeovegetation and palaeoenvironment of a peat-forming

The Late Frasnian mass extinction (LFME) during extreme greenhouse conditions had a serious impact on biotic evolution. Herein, based on detailed size measurements of 1783 elements of the conodont genera Polygnathus and Palmatolepis at the Lali and Duan sections in South China, conodont animals underwent significant size reduction at the genus level during the late Frasnian. The “Bergmann's rule” controlled

Although natural assemblages that preserve natural associations of elements in conodont apparatus are extremely rare, they are of fundamental importance in conodont paleobiology, e.g. apparatus architecture, functional morphology, suprageneric classification and evolution. We herein report three exceptionally preserved natural assemblages from the uppermost Helongshan Formation of South Majiashan section

The widespread occurrence of lower Eocene chert and porcellanite has been viewed as a major paleoceanographic issue since the advent of ocean drilling, and both biotic and abiotic forcings have been proposed to explain it. We present a reconstruction of indurated siliceous sediment (ISS) and preserved biosiliceous sediment (PBS) occurrences in the Atlantic Ocean through the Paleocene and Eocene (~66

Deep wells penetrated Cenozoic sedimentary record of two different basins: 1) Oligocene retro-arc basin which is buried under the 2) Miocene back-arc Danube Basin. This study is focused on biotic and abiotic proxies discussed in terms of existing biostratigraphical, paleoenvironmental and sedimentological data. Biotic proxies are represented by palynofacies and biomarkers (palynomorphs, AOM, phytoclasts

Ediacaran fossils from the Nama Group (Kuibis Subgroup) of southern Namibia have a long history of scientific scrutiny, however many of the fossil localities still require investigation from a sedimentary facies and sequence stratigraphic standpoint. Detailed sedimentary analyses utilizing chemostratigraphy and facies-based approaches resulted in five proposed facies and two paleoenvironmental settings

Knowledge of the chemical weathering history under the subtropical monsoonal climate will help to resolve the discrepancies regarding how climate conditions constrain chemical weathering. Major element and rare earth element (REE) compositions of the Qionghai Lake sediments in Sichuan Province, southwestern China were analyzed, aiming to provide information on sediment source discrimination and history

A new bioclaustration structure is described from the Emsian (Lower Devonian) Aguión Formation of Asturias, NW Spain. It is the result of intergrowth of two bryozoan species, Leioclema elegans and Loxophragma cf. leptum, hosting an unknown soft-bodied modular symbiont. These structures point to the development of host-specific symbiotic associations in which both partners grew simultaneously. The association