Both the fossil record and molecular data support a long evolutionary history for the Araceae. Although the family is diverse in tropical America today, most araceous fossils, however, have been recorded from middle and high latitudes. Here, we report fossil leaves of Araceae from the middle-late Paleocene of northern Colombia, and review fossil araceous pollen grains from the same interval. Tw...

The appearance of detritus shed from mountain ranges along the northern margin of the Tibetan Plateau heralds the Cenozoic development of high topography. Current estimates of the age of the basal conglomerate in the Qaidam basin place this event in Paleocene-Eocene. Here we present new magnetostratigraphy and mammalian biostratigraphy that refine the onset of basin fill to ∼25.5 Myr and reveal...

The evolution of Antarctic climate from a Cretaceous greenhouse into the Neogene icehouse is captured within a rich record of fossil leaves, wood, pollen, and flowers from the Antarctic Peninsula and the Transantarctic Mountains. About 85 million years ago, during the mid-Late Cretaceous, flowering plants thrived in subtropical climates in Antarctica. Analysis of their leaves and flowers, many ...

The Paleocene/Eocene thermal maximum (PETM) was a time of rapid global warming in both marine and continental realms that has been attributed to a massive methane (CH4) release from marine gas hydrate reservoirs. Previously proposed mechanisms for this methane release rely on a change in deepwater source region(s) to increase water temperatures rapidly enough to trigger the massive thermal diss...

Subsurface characterization activities undertaken in collaboration with the Southwest Regional Carbon Sequestration Partnership on their San Juan Basin pilot test include acquisition of geophysical logs, time lapse VSP and analysis of 3D seismic data from the site. The project is funded by the U.S. Department of Energy and is managed by the National Energy Technology Laboratory.CO2 injection be...

The importance of topography generated by Eocene Eurekan deformation as a sediment source for sandstones deposited on the western Barents Shelf margin is evaluated through provenance study conducted wellbore materials retrieved from Spitsbergen and Vestbakken Volcanic Province Sørvestsnaget Basin in southwest Sea. A variety complementary techniques record change across Paleocene-Eocene boundary...

The Grenada Basin separates the active Lesser Antilles Arc from Aves Ridge, described as a Cretaceous-Paleocene remnant of “Great Caribbean.” Although various tectonic models have been proposed for opening Basin, data on which they rely are insufficient to reach definitive conclusions. This study presents, large set deep-penetrating multichannel seismic reflection and dredge samples acquired du...

Hyaenodonta is a diverse, extinct group of carnivorous mammals that included weasel- to rhinoceros-sized species. The oldest-known hyaenodont fossils are from the middle Paleocene of North Africa and the antiquity of the group in Afro-Arabia led to the hypothesis that it originated there and dispersed to Asia, Europe, and North America. Here we describe two new hyaenodont species based on the o...