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JournalISSN: 1867-1594

Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments 

Springer Nature
About: Palaeobiodiversity and Palaeoenvironments is an academic journal published by Springer Nature. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Devonian & Carboniferous. It has an ISSN identifier of 1867-1594. Over the lifetime, 551 publications have been published receiving 6103 citations.
Topics: Devonian, Carboniferous, Paleontology, Geology, Fauna


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Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: CLAMP Online as mentioned in this paper is a form-driven web facility enabling Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) palaeoclimate determinations to be conducted in their entirety without the need for additional software.
Abstract: CLAMP Online is a new form-driven web facility enabling Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) palaeoclimate determinations to be conducted in their entirety without the need for additional software. This facility is demonstrated using physiognomic data from 82 Eocene to Pliocene fossil sites in North America, the Physg3brc CLAMP calibration file, and both locally derived climate data (Met3br) and 0.5° × 0.5° gridded climate data (GRIDMet3br). All the fossil sites fall within the physiognomic space defined by the Physg3brc dataset showing the versatility of this calibration for Paleogene to Present sites in North America. The fossil sites also plot in the mesic part of physiognomic space confirming that the source of the fossil material was vegetation growing under conditions where water was not growth-limiting to any significant degree. Regression equations are derived relating the local to the gridded climate predictions showing the relative predictive capabilities of each dataset, as well as offering ways to convert previously published data between the two calibrations. Palaeoclimate data (mean annual, warm month mean and cold month mean temperatures, growing season length, growing season and mean monthly growing season precipitation, precipitation during the three consecutive wettest and three consecutive driest months, and annual averages for relative and specific humidities and enthalpy) are given for all 82 sites.

123 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In the early Eocene, a big wave of dispersals reached Europe during a marked rise in temperature at the beginning of the Eocene (MP 7) as mentioned in this paper. But this wave did not strongly affect squamates in Europe.
Abstract: Squamates first appeared in Europe in the Middle Jurassic. They were lizards that already included some crown-group members. Faunas of the Late Jurassic and Early Cretaceous were more or less a continuation of the Middle Jurassic assemblage. The early Late Cretaceous was characterised by a peculiar fauna of marine pythonomorphs, while terrestrial forms were rare. In the subsequent levels of the Late Cretaceous, marine forms were mainly mosasaurids; terrestrial assemblages heralding modern ones began to take form during the Campanian–Maastrichtian. The Cretaceous–Tertiary event did not strongly affect squamates in Europe. After poor Paleocene faunas, a big wave of dispersals reached Europe during a marked rise in temperature at the beginning of the Eocene (MP 7). The Eocene fauna was rich, diverse and of tropical type. In western Europe, a sharp extinction event (‘Grande Coupure’) eliminated most squamates at the end of the Eocene, but its impact in central and eastern Europe is unknown. The Oligocene fauna was transitional between the ‘old’ Eocene and the modern Miocene faunas. By the late early Miocene (MN 3–MN 4), the fauna markedly changed when an important wave of dispersals entered Europe during a climatic optimum. From the late middle Miocene onward, the temperature has dropped. As a consequence, faunas became less rich and regionalisation occurred. Numerous extinctions and withdrawals took place during the late Pliocene and early Pleistocene, leaving an impoverished fauna in Europe.

97 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: In this article, the authors summarized the sedimentary and palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Junggar Basin in Northwest China largely based on hardly accessible Chinese language papers, and complemented by own field observations and a critical survey of key sediment cores from petroleum wells.
Abstract: This review paper summarizes the sedimentary and palaeoenvironmental evolution of the Junggar Basin in Northwest China largely based on hardly accessible Chinese language papers, and complemented by own field observations and a critical survey of key sediment cores from petroleum wells. We have combined this information and updated existing lithofacies and isopach maps for characteristic time slices of basin evolution and palaeoenvironmental change. The Junggar Basin was initiated during the late stage of collisional tectonics in the southern Central Asian Orogenic Belt (Altaids) since the Early Permian. According to studies in surrounding mountain chains and geophysical surveys, the basement consists of a collage of oceanic basins, intraoceanic island arcs, and microcontinents of Precambrian to Palaeozoic age. The basin fill is subdivided into three tectonically controlled stratigraphic sequences which are separated by two regional angular unconformities. The first cycle in the Permian and Triassic is characterized by an Early Permian extensional strike-slip and a Late Permian to Triassic compressional foreland setting. After an Early Permian marine regression, persistent nonmarine fluvio-lacustrine conditions were established containing probably the thickest organic-rich mudstone interval in the world, which act as major source rocks of the basin. Starting with four depocenters, the basin was unified during the Triassic. The preserved total maximum thickness of this cycle is about 8,500 m in the southern depocenter. During the second intracontinental depression cycle, subsidence slowed down and the depocenter migrated towards the basin center reaching a maximum thickness of 6,000 m. The palaeoenvironment was dominated by a large oscillating freshwater lake receiving changing quantities of clastic sediments from the surrounding mountain ranges and forming alluvial fans, braid plains, and deltas partly containing coal seams of economic interest. Sedimentary facies, pollen, and palaeobotanical plant fossils show an overall aridization trend and a shrinking lake cover. During the Neogene cycle, the depocenter migrated back to the south and the former asymmetric foreland basin was reactivated due to thrusting and rapid uplift of the Tian Shan. The maximum thickness of these molasse-type deposits exceeds 5,000 m. Despite its strong potential, there is still a lack of high resolution bio- and cyclostratigraphy, sequence stratigraphy, and palaeoclimate studies in the Junggar Basin to elucidate local versus regional palaeo-environmental patterns and to better constrain far-distance tectonic forcing.

94 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: This article examined the taphonomy and sedimentary environment of numerous ichthyosaur skeletons and compared them to living marine tetrapods, principally cetaceans, and measured abdominal pressures in human carcasses.
Abstract: What happens after the death of a marine tetrapod in seawater? Palaeontologists and neontologists have claimed that large lung-breathing marine tetrapods such as ichthyosaurs had a lower density than seawater, implying that their carcasses floated at the surface after death and sank subsequently after leakage of putrefaction gases (or ‘‘carcass explosions’’). Such explosions would thus account for the skeletal disarticulation observed frequently in the fossil record. We examined the taphonomy and sedimentary environment of numerous ichthyosaur skeletons and compared them to living marine tetrapods, principally cetaceans, and measured abdominal pressures in human carcasses. Our data and a review of the literature demonstrate that carcasses sink and do not explode (and spread skeletal elements). We argue that the normally slightly negatively buoyant carcasses of ichthyosaurs would have sunk to the sea floor and risen to the surface only when they remained in shallow water above a certain temperature and at a low scavenging rate. Once surfaced, prolonged floating may have occurred and a carcass have decomposed gradually. Our conclusions are of significance to the understanding of the inclusion of carcasses of lung-breathing vertebrates in marine nutrient recycling. The postmortem fate has essential implications for the interpretation of vertebrate fossil preservation (the existence of complete, disarticulated fossil skeletons is not explained by previous hypotheses), palaeobathymetry, the physiology of modern marine lung-breathing tetrapods and their conservation, and the recovery of human bodies from seawater.

64 citations

Journal ArticleDOI
TL;DR: The Junggar Basin in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (NW China) comprises an almost continuous sequence of continental Mesozoic sediments from the Permian to the latest Jurassic (Tithonan) and is well suited for studies on palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes as discussed by the authors.
Abstract: The Junggar Basin in the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region (NW China) comprises an almost continuous sequence of continental Mesozoic sediments. The basin was positioned at a latitude of about 45°N from the Permian onwards and existed almost during the entire Mesozoic. As such, it is well suited for studies on palaeoclimatic and palaeoenvironmental changes during this period as tectonic movements of the basin between different climate zones can largely be excluded. Current knowledge about Triassic and Jurassic palaeoclimate development is complemented by new lithological data from the southern part of the basin, ranging from the Late Triassic (Norian) up to the latest Jurassic (Tithonan). Preliminary palynostratigraphical data demonstrate that the base of the Middle Jurassic probably does not coincide with lithostratigraphical formation boundaries (i.e., boundary between Sangonghe and Xishanyiao Formation), but lies within the lower part of the Sangonghe Formation. Humid climates dominated during the Triassic and the Early Jurassic, with only a few drier excursions, especially in upland regions. In the northeastern part of the Junggar Basin, the oldest evidence of seasonally dry climatic conditions is recognized during the latest Early Jurassic, and the first basin-wide evidence of seasonally dry conditions is recognized in the middle Middle Jurassic. A seasonally dry climate was permanently established in the basin from the beginning of the Late Jurassic onwards.

60 citations

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No. of papers from the Journal in previous years
YearPapers
202317
202248
202179
202058
201935
201838