Fossil palm beetles refine upland winter temperatures in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum.

ABSTRACT: Eocene climate and associated biotic patterns provide an analog system to understand their modern interactions. The relationship between mean annual temperatures and winter temperatures-temperature seasonality-may be an important factor in this dynamic. Fossils of frost-intolerant palms imply low Eocene temperature seasonality into high latitudes, constraining average winter temperatures there to >8 °C. However, their presence in a paleocommunity may be obscured by taphonomic and identification factors for macrofossils and pollen. We circumvented these problems by establishing the presence of obligate palm-feeding beetles (Chrysomelidae: Pachymerina) at three localities (a fourth, tentatively) in microthermal to lower mesothermal Early Eocene upland communities in Washington and British Co

SUBMITTER: Archibald SB 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC4050627 | biostudies-literature | 2014 Jun

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature