Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

Palaeoclimate

Message from the fish teeth

Nature volume 430, pages 26–27 (2004)Cite this article

An innovative analysis of isotope signatures in fish fossils will help in understanding past ocean circulation and its role in the climate system, and in testing models for climate reconstruction.

How did Earth's oceans behave during past episodes of long-term ‘green-house’ warmth? On page 65 of this issue1, Deborah J. Thomas describes her investigations into the most recent episode of extreme global warmth, which occurred during the early Cenozoic era, between roughly 65 million and 40 million years ago, and reached its peaks at 55 million and 52–50 million years ago. Along with high levels of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere, a different pattern of ocean circulation, compared with that of today, is thought to have been a central determinant of the heat budget of the climate system. From her geochemical analysis of fossil-fish remains from muds of the central Pacific, Thomas concludes that ocean circulation was indeed different — but that the difference was not the same as that proposed in a prominent explanation for the global temperature regime during the early Cenozoic.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Rent or buy this article

Get just this article for as long as you need it

$39.95

Learn more

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

References

  1. Thomas, D. J. Nature 430, 65–68 (2004).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  2. Prothero, D. R. The Eocene-Oligocene Transition: Paradise Lost (Columbia Univ. Press, 1994).

    Google Scholar 

  3. Thomas, E., Zachos, J. & Bralower, T. J. in Warm Climates in Earth History (eds Huber, B. T., MacLeod, K. G. & Wing, S. L.) 132–160 (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2000).

    Google Scholar 

  4. Zachos, J. C., Stott, L. D. & Lohmann, K. C. Paleoceanography 9, 353–387 (1994).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  5. Pearson, P. N. et al. Nature 413, 481–487 (2001).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  6. Pearson, P. N. & Palmer, M. R. Nature 406, 695–699 (2000).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  7. Sloan, L. C., Walker, J. C. G. & Moore, T. C. Jr Paleoceanography 10, 347–356 (1995).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  8. Lyle, M. Paleoceanography 12, 161–167 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  9. Martin, E. E. & Scher, H. D. Earth Planet. Sci. Lett. 220, 25–39 (2004).

    Article  ADS  CAS  Google Scholar 

  10. Bice, K. L., Barron, E. J. & Peterson, W. H. Geology 25, 951–954 (1997).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

  11. Bice, K. L. & Marotzke, J. J. Geophys. Res. 106, 11529–11542 (2001).

    Article  ADS  Google Scholar 

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research, Telegrafenberg A43, Potsdam, 14473, Germany

    Bernhard Diekmann

Authors
  1. Bernhard Diekmann
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Rights and permissions

Reprints and Permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Diekmann, B. Message from the fish teeth. Nature 430, 26–27 (2004). https://doi.org/10.1038/430026a

Download citation

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/430026a

Search

Advanced search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing