Search results for "FOSS"

Poggetti Vecchi (Tuscany, Italy): A late Middle Pleistocene case of human-elephant interaction

2019

Abstract A paleosurface with a concentration of wooden-, bone-, and stone-tools interspersed among an accumulation of fossil bones, largely belonging to the straight-tusked elephant Palaeoloxodon antiquus, was found at the bottom of a pool, fed by hot springs, that was excavated at Poggetti Vecchi, near Grosseto (Tuscany, Italy). The site is radiometrically dated to the late Middle Pleistocene, around 171,000 years BP. Notable is the association of the artifacts with the elephant bones, and in particular the presence of digging sticks made from boxwood (Buxus sp.). Although stone tools show evidence of use mainly on animal tissues, indicating some form of interaction between hominins and an…

Drivers of peat accumulation rate in a raised bog: impact of drainage, climate, and local vegetation composition

2017

We used variation partitioning to assess the relative importance of drainage, climate and local vegetation composition for the development of a raised bog. As a case study we selected Teici (Teici) Bog in Latvia (north-east Europe). Explanatory variables together explained 74 % of the variation in peat accumulation and only the residue of 26 % remained unexplained. Our study showed that the local vegetation composition and dominant Sphagnum species significantly influence peat accumulation rates. The results of linear models revealed that, under natural conditions, minor drainage and even strong drainage of the peat is associated with a positive growth balance of the system. However, draina…

Preliminary Results on Recent Calcareous nannofossil Assemblages from the Central Mediterranean

2009

Response of calcareous nannofossils to late Quaternary orbital and suborbital climate changes: Evidence from central Mediterranean and Iberian Margin…

2009

The beast burrowed, the fluid followed – Crustacean burrows as methane conduits

2015

Abstract An extensive pockmark field with associated methane-seep carbonates has recently been reported from the late Albian (Lower Cretaceous) Ubidepea Mudstone of the Black Flysch Group in the Basque Country, northern Spain, but the exact pathways of the migrating methane-rich fluids remained elusive. Here we provide petrographic, stable carbon and oxygen isotope evidence that abundant crustacean burrows in the surrounding mudstone, preserved as the trace fossil Thalassinoides, and the seep carbonates themselves have acted as long-lasting fluid conduits in this system. The Thalassinoides infill generations show a diagenetic parasequence often starting with a distinctive lining, followed b…

Microstructure-specific carbon isotopic signatures of organic matter from ∼3.5 Ga cherts of the Pilbara Craton support a biologic origin.

2016

21 pages; International audience; The ∼3.5 Ga Dresser Formation from the North Pole Dome of the Pilbara Craton (Western Australia) contains some of the oldest evidence for life on Earth. Here, we present a detailed study of microstructure-specific carbon isotopic composition of organic matter (OM) preserved in Dresser Formation bedded cherts and hydrothermal chert vein using in situ Secondary-Ion Mass Spectrometry (SIMS). The OM in these rocks occurs mainly as clots that, together with minor fine OM layers and laminae, are considered primary textures formed prior to host rock lithification. Other than rare OM-rich stylolites, no evidence was found for later OM migration beyond the micromete…

Fossil wood in Middle–Upper Jurassic marine sedimentary cycles of France: relations with climate, sea-level dynamics, and carbonate-platform environm…

1998

Abstract Vegetation, climate, and sea-level oscillations interact in complex ways. Intuition suggests that climatic variations are recorded in geological deposits by both fossil phytoclasts and sediments. Therefore investigation of palaeobotanical remains within a precise sedimentological framework may help to decipher this much-debated interaction. A database of 129 Jurassic (Bathonian–Oxfordian) fossil wood samples from France is used here as a case study. The palaeoenvironment (freshwater swamp, carbonate lagoon, shoreface, argillaceous offshore) and the second-order relative sea-level phases were determined for each datum. There is no correlation between the wood genera distribution and…

Algunos aspectos de la variabilidad de los oogonios en poblaciones actuales del género <i>Chara</i> (Charophyceae). Aplicación paleontoló…

1986

A critical revision of some useful taxonomic criteria in paleontology of Charophytes is carried Out. The results are based in four modern populations ((<i>Chara aculeolata, Chara</i> aff.<i>baltica, Chara delicatula</i> and <i>Chara globularis</i>) and they permit to make some serious objections to these critera. The results are related with three principal aspects: the meaning of the absolute magnitudes of me girogonite, the behaviour of his joint variation and the morphological variability during the calcification process. In general, and for each one of the four populations, an absence of influence of the position of the girogonite over their measureme…

Reconstruction of the former charophyte community out of the fructifications identified in Albufera de València lagoon sediments

2010

Abstract Several decades ago, due to eutrophication, Albufera de Valencia lagoon lost the charophyte meadows that covered the bottom in the past but had never been studied in detail. An area close to the lagoon will be restored now to improve water quality and to recover submerged vegetation. To have information on the background of the charophytes from this area, four 80–87 cm long sediment cores were extracted from the lagoon. The subfossil charophyte fructifications (oospores and gyrogonites) were isolated and identified in two of the four cores. Moreover, sediment core fractions from the third and fourth cores were allowed to germinate under several conditions. The study of the lagoon s…

ChemInform Abstract: Metal-Metal Bonding and Metallic Behavior in Some ABO2 Delafossites.

2010

We present results of ab initio band structure calculations on some ABO2 delafossite oxides that have both the A and B sites occupied by transition metals. This class of materials includes insulators as well as some of the most conducting oxides. The calculations have been performed in order to understand the nature of the metallic and insulating states and the extensive metal−metal bonding displayed by these materials. The effect of polytypism on the electronic structure is examined. Among the interesting aspects of the electronic structure of these materials are the contributions from both A and B atoms to states near the Fermi energy and the highly disperse nature of bands derived from t…