Deterioration of symbiont bearing morozovellid habitat (planktic foraminifera) habitat recorded within the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum: evidence from the Tethys and sub-tropical Atlantic Ocean
The Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) is the crucial interval of the Cenozoic climate recording the highest global temperatures of the past 70 Ma, followed by a long-term cooling ultimately leading to the emplacement of a stable ice sheet on Antarctica. The early Paleogene section of Possagno (Ve...
Published in: | Rendiconti online della Società Geologica Italiana |
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Main Authors: | , , , , , |
Other Authors: | , , , , , |
Format: | Article in Journal/Newspaper |
Language: | English |
Published: |
2014
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Subjects: | |
Online Access: | http://hdl.handle.net/11392/2116413 https://doi.org/10.3301/ROL.2014.92 |
Summary: | The Early Eocene Climatic Optimum (EECO) is the crucial interval of the Cenozoic climate recording the highest global temperatures of the past 70 Ma, followed by a long-term cooling ultimately leading to the emplacement of a stable ice sheet on Antarctica. The early Paleogene section of Possagno (Venetian Prealps of northeastern Italy), deposited in a bathyal setting, provides an excellent magneto- and calcareous plankton stratigraphic record of the lower-middle Eocene transition as occurring in a marginal basin of the central-western Tethys (~55 to 46 Ma). This section therefore spans the EECO interval. Only a few studies have focused on paleoecological and evolutionary consequences of the EECO on planktic foraminifera. We show that morozovellids, a main group of early Paleogene calcifiers record a first critical step across the EECO because they record a permanent, marked decline in abundance from the Tethys (Possagno section) and North Atlantic Ocean (ODP Site 1051) realms. |
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