Search results for "Paleotemperature"

A low seasonality scenario in the Mediterranean Sea during the Calabrian (Early Pleistocene) inferred from fossil Arctica islandica shells

2017

Understanding past seasonal temperature variability in the ocean is essential to evaluate the effects of future climate change on marine ecosystems. Here, we estimate seasonal water temperature amplitudes from stable oxygen isotope (δ18Oshell) values of fossil shells of Arctica islandica (assuming δ18Owater= + 0.9 ± 0.1‰ V-SMOW). Specimens were collected from three Pleistocene successions (Emilian and Sicilian substages of the Calabrian) in Central and Southern Italy (i.e., Rome, Lecce and Sicily). Biostratigraphic analyses from Rome Quarry deposits indicate an age between 1.6 and 1.2 Ma, whereas Sicily and Lecce successions are slightly more recent (between 1.1 and 0.62 Ma). Prior to …

Climatic fluctuations and seasonality during the Late Jurassic (Oxfordian–Early Kimmeridgian) inferred from delta18O of Paris Basin oyster shells.

2008

10 pages; International audience; Oxygen isotope data from biostratigraphically well-dated oyster shells from the Late Jurassic of the eastern Paris Basin are used to reconstruct the thermal evolution of western Tethyan surface waters during the Early Oxfordian–Early Kimmeridgian interval. Seventy eight oyster shells were carefully screened for potential diagenetic alteration using cathodoluminescence microscopy. Isotope analyses were performed on nonluminescent parts of shells (n=264). Intra-shell δ18O variability was estimated by microsampling along a transect perpendicular to the growth lines of the largest oyster shell. The sinusoidal distribution of the δ18O values along this transect …

Revised phosphate-water fractionation equation reassessing paleotemperatures derived from biogenic apatite.

2010

8 pages; International audience; Oxygen isotopes of biogenic apatite have been widely used to reassess anomalous temperatures inferred from oxygen isotope ratios of ancient biogenic calcite, more prone to diagenetic alteration. However, recent studies have highlighted that oxygen isotope ratios of biogenic apatite differ dependent on used analytical techniques. This questions the applicability of the phosphate–water fractionation equations established over 25 years ago using earlier analytical techniques to more recently acquired data. In this work we present a new phosphate–water oxygen isotope fractionation equation based on oxygen isotopes determined on fish raised in aquariums at contro…

Venerid bivalve Venus verrucosa as a high-resolution archive of seawater temperature in the Mediterranean Sea

2021

Abstract High-resolution stable isotope data (δ18O, δ13C) were used to study growth strategies of the bivalve Venus verrucosa collected from three sites of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea. The principal objectives of this study were to identify the main growing season and to evaluate the potential applicability of δ18Oshell values to reconstruct the seasonal temperature variability. Calcium carbonate for oxygen and carbon isotope analyses was obtained by drilling the outer shell layer. Temporal and spatial variations in temperature and salinity values at the study sites were simulated using the 3D numerical ocean model ROMS. Annual periodicity of growth patterns was confirmed by δ18Os…

Regional endothermy as a trigger for gigantism in some extinct macropredatory sharks

2017

Otodontids include some of the largest macropredatory sharks that ever lived, the most extreme case being Otodus (Megaselachus) megalodon. The reasons underlying their gigantism, distribution patterns and extinction have been classically linked with climatic factors and the evolution, radiation and migrations of cetaceans during the Paleogene. However, most of these previous proposals are based on the idea of otodontids as ectothermic sharks regardless of the ecological, energetic and body size constraints that this implies. Interestingly, a few recent studies have suggested the possible existence of endothermy in these sharks thus opening the door to a series of new interpretations. Accord…

Paleoceanography of the Late Cretaceous northwestern Tethys Ocean: Seasonal upwelling or steady thermocline?

2020

In this study we attempted to assess whether seasonal upwelling or a steady thermocline persisted at the western margin of the Tethys Ocean during the late Turonian-early Coniacian interval. For this scope, we employed novel and published stable oxygen isotope (δ18O) data of various organisms (bivalves, bivalves, brachiopods, fish and belemnites). New seasonally resolved temperature estimates were based on the δ18O record of sequentially sampled inoceramid (Inoceramus sp.) and rudist (Hippurites resectus) shells from the Scaglia Rossa and Gosau deposits of northern Italy and western Austria, respectively. Diagenetic screening was performed using reflected light, cathodoluminescence (CL), sc…

Temperature-induced microstructural changes in shells of laboratory-grown Arctica islandica (Bivalvia).

2021

Bivalve shells are increasingly used as archives for high-resolution paleoclimate analyses. However, there is still an urgent need for quantitative temperature proxies that work without knowledge of the water chemistry–as is required for δ18O-based paleothermometry–and can better withstand diagenetic overprint. Recently, microstructural properties have been identified as a potential candidate fulfilling these requirements. So far, only few different microstructure categories (nacreous, prismatic and crossed-lamellar) of some short-lived species have been studied in detail, and in all such studies, the size and/or shape of individual biomineral units was found to increase with water temperat…

Leukoma antiqua (Bivalvia) - A high-resolution marine paleoclimate archive for southern South America?

2018

The Patagonian Sea in the SW Atlantic is one of the most productive marine ecosystems worldwide. Besides its economic relevance, this shelf sea serves as a major sink for atmospheric CO2 and thus plays a major role in global climate. Despite that, the marine climate dynamics in that region remain barely known. Instrumental records only cover the last 30 years or so and high-resolution climate archives are currently not available. Here, we explore the possibility to obtain seasonally to inter-annually resolved paleotemperature data from shells of the bivalve mollusk, Leukoma antiqua collected alive from the shallow subtidal zone of the San Jorge Gulf. Results demonstrate that this species gr…

Organic carbon composition and a new organic lipid paleotemperature proxy applied to the Messinian Tripoli Formation, Caltanissetta Basin, Sicily

2004

Carbon cycle and sea-water palaeotemperature evolution at the Middle-Late Jurassic transition, eastern Paris Basin (France).

2014

14 pages; International audience; A very high-resolution carbon and oxygen stable isotope analysis (bulk-carbonate) of a biostratigraphically well-constrained Callovian-Oxfordian series is provided here for the first time. The homogeneity of the clayey series and the weak diagenetic alteration allow the isotopic signal variations to be considered as primary in origin. A prominent and brief negative excursion in the δ13C curve (−2‰), occurring at the start of the Middle Callovian (Jason Zone - Obductum Subzone) and correlated regionally, suggests a possible methane release. The increasing δ13C values thereafter up to the Early Oxfordian, concomitant with a warming episode, highlight the buri…