The hypothesis of a Palaearctic origin of Leishmania in the early Cenozoic, dispersal to the Nearctic in the late Eocene and to the Neotropical in the Pliocene is presented. It is further hypothesized that murid rodents and their immediate ancestors have been important mammalian reservoirs since the origination of Leishmania. Biochemical, molecular, biogeographical, entomological, mammalalogica...

Terrestrial climate records for Antarctica, beyond the age limit of ice cores, are restricted to few unglaciated areas with exposed rock outcrops. Marine sediments on Antarctica's continental shelves contain past oceanic and terrestrial environments that can provide important insights into Antarctic evolution. The SHALDRIL II (Shallow Drilling Continental Margin) expedition recovered sedimentar...

The recent and fossil pollen data obtained under the frame of the multi-disciplinary international El’gygytgyn Drilling Project represent a unique archive, which allows the testing of a range of pollen-based reconstruction approaches and the deciphering of changes in the regional vegetation and climate. In the current study we provide details of the biome reconstruction method applied to the la...

Bulk X-ray mineralogy of 47 hemipelagic mud and clay samples from the Blake Outer Ridge has revealed that the sediments contain low magnesian calcite, calcian dolomite, ferroan dolomite, and magnesian siderite. Dolomite and siderite are authigenic and occur as rhombohedrons scattered through the sediments, whereas calcite is mostly biogenic. Pliocene dolomitic lenses are made up of interlocking...

The absolute chronology of the Patagonian glaciations is one of the most complete in the world and probably the best available for the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica. The oldest known Patagonian glaciations took place between approximately 7 and 5 Ma (Latest Miocene–Earliest Pliocene). A minimum of eight glaciations occurred in the Middle–Late Pliocene (Oxygen Isotopic Stages 54–82). Th...

High resolution benthic (Cibicidoides spp.) stable isotope and percent sand fraction records were constructed for the early Pliocene (3.3-4.7 Ma) at Ocean Drilling Program (ODP) Sites 925 (3042 m water depth) and 929 (4361 m water depth). These sites are located in the modern mixing zone of North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) and Antarctic Bottom Water (AABW). We evaluate changes in deep-water cir...

Late Pliocene climate changes have long been implicated in environmental changes and mammalian evolution in Africa, but high-resolution examinations of the fossil and climatic records have been hampered by poor sampling. By using fossils from the well-dated Shungura Formation (lower Omo Valley, northern Turkana Basin, southern Ethiopia), we investigate palaeodietary changes in one bovid and in ...

Abstract. The Pliocene-Recent is associated with many important climatic and paleoceanographic changes, which have shaped the biotic abiotic nature of modern world. closure Central American Seaway development intensification Northern Hemisphere ice sheets had profound global impacts on latitudinal vertical structure oceans, triggering extinction radiation marine groups. In particular, calcifyin...

The Subfamily Dolichotinae comprises two living species, Dolichotis patagonum, an emblematic component of the Patagonian fauna Argentina, and salinicola, endemic to Chaco ecoregion. These species are also considered as pertaining different genera, D. patagonum Pediolagus salinicola. oldest records come from Pliocene–Pleistocene boundary northeastern central late Pleistocene southern Brazil, nor...

Pre-industrial and mid-Pliocene simulations with NorESM-L Z. S. Zhang, K. Nisancioglu, M. Bentsen, J. Tjiputra, I. Bethke, Q. Yan, B. Risebrobakken, C. Andersson, and E. Jansen Bjerknes Centre for Climate Research, Allegaten 55, 5007, Bergen, Norway UNI Research, Allegaten 55, 5007, Bergen, Norway Nansen-Zhu International Research Center, Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sci...