Climate change: Snakes tell a torrid tale
@article{Huber2009ClimateCS, title={Climate change: Snakes tell a torrid tale}, author={Matthew Huber}, journal={Nature}, year={2009}, volume={457}, pages={669-671} }
The discovery in Colombia of a giant species of fossil snake is news in itself. But a wider, more controversial inference to be drawn is that tropical climate in the past was not buffered from global warming. The discovery of the world's largest known snake — living around 60 million years ago in tropical South America — has important implications for our understanding of the evolution of global climate. The fossil, found in northeastern Columbia — is of a relative of the boa constrictor; it…
25 Citations
Global Warming and Neotropical Rainforests: A Historical Perspective
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2013
There is concern over the future of the tropical rainforest (TRF) in the face of global warming. Will TRFs collapse? The fossil record can inform us about that. Our compilation of 5,998 empirical…
Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation
- Environmental Science, GeographyScience
- 2010
Palynology shows that the tropical rainforest was able to persist under elevated temperatures and high levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide, in contrast to speculations that tropical ecosystems were severely compromised by heat stress.
Early Cenozoic Differentiation of Polar Marine Faunas
- Geography, Environmental SciencePloS one
- 2013
A global analysis of one of the largest marine clades at the present day, the Neogastropoda, indicates that not only is there a decreases in the number of species from the tropics to the poles but also a decrease in the evenness of their distribution, which points to the key role of seasonality in structuring the highest latitude marine assemblages.
Impacts of climate change on the amphibians and reptiles of Southeast Asia
- Environmental ScienceBiodiversity and Conservation
- 2010
Amphibians and reptiles will be adversely affected by projected rapid changes in climate in the next decades. Here, we review the known and potential impacts of climate change on the Southeast Asian…
PROGRESS IN GREENHOUSE CLIMATE MODELING
- Environmental Science
- 2012
This article discusses past greenhouse climates with an emphasis on recent progress in the comparison of models and data in the Eocene. These past climates—about 10°C warmer than mod- ern—provide…
Leaf waxes as recorders of paleoclimatic changes during the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum: Regional expressions from the Belluno Basin
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 2015
The early Eocene equable climate problem revisited
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2011
Abstract. The early Eocene "equable climate problem", i.e. warm extratropical annual mean and above-freezing winter temperatures evidenced by proxy records, has remained as one of the great unsolved…
Diversity and Conservation of Amphibians in South and Southeast Asia
- Environmental Science
- 2014
The southern and southeastern parts of Asia host high amphibian biodiversity and comprise four biodiversity hotspots. 285 amphibian species are endemic to South Asia, 342 are distributed in India and…
Climate Response at the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum to Greenhouse Gas Forcing—A Model Study with CCSM3
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2010
Abstract The Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM; 55 Ma) is of particular interest since it is regarded as a suitable analog to future climate change. In this study, the PETM climate is…
Warm ocean processes and carbon cycling in the Eocene
- Environmental Science, GeographyPhilosophical Transactions of the Royal Society A: Mathematical, Physical and Engineering Sciences
- 2013
The results indicate that, during the Early and Middle Eocene, carbon isotope gradients were steeper (and larger) through the upper thermocline than in the modern ocean, which supports previously proposed hypotheses that invoke high metabolic rates in a warm Eocene ocean, leading to more efficient recycling of organic matter and reduced burial rates of organic carbon.
References
SHOWING 1-10 OF 14 REFERENCES
Giant boid snake from the Palaeocene neotropics reveals hotter past equatorial temperatures
- Environmental Science, GeographyNature
- 2009
Depositional environments and faunal composition of the Cerrejón Formation indicate an anaconda-like ecology for the giant snake, and an earliest Cenozoic origin of neotropical vertebrate faunas.
Fossil crocodilians as indicators of Late Cretaceous and Cenozoic climates: implications for using palaeontological data in reconstructing palaeoclimate
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 1998
Late Paleocene–early Eocene climate changes in southwestern Wyoming: Paleobotanical analysis
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2000
The warmest global temperatures of the Cenozoic Era occurred in early Eocene time, following a warming trend that started in late Paleocene time. The greater Green River Basin of southwestern Wyoming…
Jiggling the tropical thermostat in the Cretaceous hothouse
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2002
Modern open-ocean sea-surface temperatures rarely exceed ;28‐29 8C, and the same has been thought to represent a rough maximum for past tropical climates. However, new isotopic estimates from the…
Late Paleocene Arctic coastal climate inferred from molluscan stable and radiogenic isotope ratios
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 2001
The climate of the Eocene ocean
- Environmental Science, GeographyJournal of the Geological Society
- 1981
Oxygen isotope palaeotemperature estimates are presented for a number of deep sea sediment samples of Eocene age, covering a wide geographical area. These are plotted on a geographical reconstruction…
A multi-proxy approach to determine Antarctic terrestrial palaeoclimate during the Late Cretaceous and Early Tertiary
- Geography, Environmental Science
- 2005
Warm Climates in Earth History: Index
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 1999
Preface Brian T. Huber, Kenneth G. MacLeod, Scott L. Wing Part I. Approaches to the Study of Paleoclimates: 1. Warm climate forcing mechanisms Paul J. Valdes 2. Recent advances in paleoclimate…
Eocene continental climates and latitudinal temperature gradients
- Environmental Science, Geography
- 1995
Global climate during the Mesozoic and early Cenozoic is thought to have been warmer than at present, but there is debate about winter temperatures. Paleontological data indicate mild temperatures…
Thermostats, Radiator Fins, and the Local Runaway Greenhouse
- Environmental Science
- 1995
Abstract The author has reconsidered the question of the regulation of tropical sea surface temperature. This has been done in general terms through consideration of the tropical beat budget and in…