The relation between the partial pressure of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) and Paleogene climate is poorly resolved. We used stable carbon isotopic values of di-unsaturated alkenones extracted from deep sea cores to reconstruct pCO2 from the middle Eocene to the late Oligocene (approximately 45 to 25 million years ago). Our results demonstrate that pCO2 ranged between 1000 to 1500 parts per...

We determine paleoelevation of the Sierra Nevada, California, by tracking the effect of topography on precipitation, as recorded in hydrogen isotopes of kaolinite exposed in gold-bearing river deposits from the Eocene Yuba River. The data, compared with the modern isotopic composition of precipitation, show that about 40 to 50 million years ago the Sierra Nevada stood tall (>/=2200 meters), a r...

Deviacer guangxiensis Chen & Manchester sp. nov. is described based on asymmetric samaras from the Oligocene Ningming Formation in Guangxi, South China, representing the first documentation of Deviacer fossils in Asia. The Oligocene species, with relatively large fruits, represents the youngest record of the genus so far known; all other records are from the Paleocene and Eocene, or late Eocene...

Advanced eusociality sometimes is given credit for the ecological success of termites, ants, some wasps, and some bees. Comprehensive study of bees fossilized in Baltic amber has revealed an unsuspected middle Eocene (ca. 45 million years ago) diversity of eusocial bee lineages. Advanced eusociality arose once in the bees with significant post-Eocene losses in diversity, leaving today only two ...

Fishes of the family Clupeidae are extremely abundant in the Eocene fossiliferous limestone of Monte Bolca representing the most common group from this celebrated locality. A new clupeid from the Pesciara site, Eoalosa janvieri gen. et sp. nov., is described. The new taxon exhibits a unique combination of characters supporting its recognition as a new genus and species of clupeid fish that is t...

Upper abyssal to lower bathyal benthic foraminifera from Ocean Drilling Program Sites 689 (present water depth 2080m) and 690 (present water depth 29I4m) on Maud Rise (Antarctica) recorded changes in deep-water characteristics at high southern latitudes during the cenozoic. The benthic foraminiferal faunas show only minor differences as a result of the difference in water depths between the sit...

The freshwater sponge species Ephydatia cf. facunda Weltner, 1895 (Spongillida, Spongillidae) is reported for the first time as a fossil from middle Eocene lake sediments of the Giraffe kimberlite maar in northern Canada. The sponge is represented by birotule gemmuloscleres as well as oxea megascleres. Today, E. facunda inhabits warm-water bodies, so its presence in the Giraffe locality provide...

A profound faunal reorganization occurred near the Paleocene/Eocene boundary, when several groups of mammals abruptly appeared on the Holarctic continents. To test the hypothesis that this event featured the dispersal of groups from Asia to North America and Europe, we used isotope stratigraphy, magnetostratigraphy, and quantitative biochronology to constrain the relative age of important Asian...

Two new fossil species of Nymphidae (Neuroptera) are described: Nymphes georgei sp. nov. from the Early Eocene locality at Republic, Washington, U.S.A., and Pronymphes hoffeinsorum sp. nov. from Late Eocene Baltic amber. The assignment of the new Republic species to Nymphes Leach maintains some doubt. This is the first fossil record of the genus (or one very closely related), today restricted t...

Sixteen new K-Ar dates are presented from Tasmanian and Bass Basin basalts, more than doubling the previously published number. Eight volcanic regions are described, based on boundaries established on the range of the basalt types contained in each geographic region. Volcanism occurred within the span from Eocene to Miocene (47 to 13+ Ma), but mainly within the time range Middle Eocene to Early...