Fossils Reveal Origins of 11,000-Year Warming Pattern (IMAGE)

Princeton University

Fossils Reveal Origins of 11,000-Year Warming Pattern

Caption

Researchers in the Sigman Lab at Princeton University extracted trace amounts of nitrogen from fossils to create a model for the activity of the Southern Ocean during the Holocene, a warm period that began about 11,000 years ago, during which agriculture and human civilization flourished. The fossils they studied included (from left): planktonic foraminifer Globigerina bulloides, a centric diatom, and deep-sea coral Desmophyllum dianthus. 

Credit

From left: Ralf Schiebel, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry; Anja Studer, Max Planck Institute for Chemistry; Dann Blackwood, United States Geological Survey

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