Isotope records and climate modeling suggest that the rainy Intertropical Convergence Zone expanded northward into the southern Caribbean during a warm interglacial period about 125,000 years ago.
fossils & paleontology
Posted inNews
Images Suggest a Viral Role in Some Rock Formation
Viruses might have helped transform dense bacterial colonies into a type of sedimentary rock that is frequently associated with underground oil reserves.
Posted inNews
Rocks with Soft-Tissue Fossils Share a Mineral Fingerprint
Discovering new resting places of these rare and information-rich fossils will be critical to understanding the largest expansion of life in Earth’s history, according to researchers.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Tracking Deep-Earth Processes from Rapid Topographic Changes
Rapid elevation-rise in Turkey, tracked by marine sediments that now sit at 1.5 km in elevation, is linked to deep-Earth processes that can explain short-lived, extreme rates of topographic change.
Posted inEditors' Highlights
Plotting the Pliocene Polar Front
Understanding changing conditions in the south polar oceans during the warm late Pliocene period may help predict the impact of contemporary warming.
Posted inNews
Fossils Provide New Clues to Tibetan Plateau’s Evolution
The bones of ancient rhinos, elephants, and fish constrain when the Tibetan Plateau rose high enough to prevent migration, a move that forced animals to adapt to high-altitude conditions.
Posted inFeatures
Hunting Rare Fossils of the Ediacaran
The search for fossil imprints and casts of squishy organisms takes time, perseverance, and sometimes a sprinkle of luck.
Posted inNews
Signatures of Dinosaur Poop Found in Cretaceous Coal Seams
Coal analysis suggests that plant-eating dinosaurs, by walking kilometers between their picnic areas and their toilets, distributed important nutrients widely and boosted ecosystem health.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Microfossils Illuminate Ancient Ocean Currents
Researchers use dissolved silicon concentrations to map out how currents may have changed millennia ago in the Pacific.
Posted inResearch Spotlights
Earth's Carbon-Climate Feedbacks Varied in Past Warming Episodes
Records from drill holes in the eastern equatorial Pacific indicate that Earth's orbital eccentricity played an important role in controlling climate as the planet warmed.