Several mechanisms have been proposed to explain the high levels of plant diversity in the Neotropics today, but little is known about diversification patterns of Neotropical floras through geological time. Here, we present the longest time series compiled for palynological plant diversity of the Neotropics (15 stratigraphic sections, 1530 samples, 1411 morphospecies, and 287,736 occurrences) f...

Paleotemperature and paleoprecipitation over the past 40 m.yr. can be inferred from the degree of chemical weathering and depth of carbonate nodules in paleosols of Oregon, Montana, and Nebraska. Paleosol records show that late Eocene (35 Ma), middle Miocene (16 Ma), late Miocene (7 Ma), and early Pliocene (4 Ma) warm climatic episodes were also times of a wet climate in Oregon, Montana, and Ne...

The combination of detailed topographic leveling on the southwest segment of the El Asnam thrust fault with existing seismic and geologic data implies that the geometry of this fault involves shallow dipping flats and steep ramps. The fault appears to be growing along strike toward the southwest end, where the main shock initiated in 1980. From a depth of about 10 km, the main thrust appears to...

A coupled global climate–Antarctic ice sheet model is run for 10 million years across the Eocene–Oligocene boundary ~34 Ma. The model simulates a rapid transition from very little ice to a large continental ice sheet, forced by a gradual decline of atmospheric CO2 and higher-frequency orbital forcing. The structure of the transition is explained in terms of height mass balance feedback (HMBF) i...

The Cenozoic Malaguide Basin from Sierra Espuña (Internal Betic Zone, S Spain) due to the quality of outcropping, areal representation, and continuity in sedimentation can be considered a key-basin. In last 30 years, large number studies with very different methodological approaches have been done area. Models indicate an evolution passive margin wedge-top basin Late Cretaceous Early Miocene. S...

A line-length balanced palinspastic reconstruction across the Himachal Himalaya is presented, highlighting different phases of Himalayan tectonic development: Eocene shortening of the north Indian margin, Early–Middle Miocene emplacement of the crystalline core, and subsequent growth of the range by underplating. The total preserved shortening is 518 km (72%). The reconstruction demonstrates ge...

Deep-sea benthic foraminifera live in the largest habitat on Earth, constitute an important part of its benthic biomass, and form diverse assemblages with common cosmopolitan species. Modern deep-sea benthic foraminiferal assemblages are strongly infl uenced by events affecting their main food source, phytoplankton (a relationship known as bentho-pelagic coupling). Surprisingly, benthic foramin...

Progressive changes are observed in both the composition of mammal faunas and vegetation during the Miocene epoch [24-5 mega-annum (Ma)]. These changes are usually interpreted as a response to climatic changes. In the traditional view, forests or woodlands gradually gave way to more open habitats, with grazing (grass-eating) ungulate (hoofed) mammal species replacing the browsing (leafy-vegetat...