New evidence for an extended occupation of the Provo shoreline and implications for regional climate change, Pleistocene Lake Bonneville, Utah, USA

Lake Bonneville was a climatically sensitive, closed-basin lake that occupied the eastern Great Basin during the late Pleistocene. Ongoing efforts to refine the record of lake level history are important for deciphering climate conditions in the Bonneville basin and for facilitating correlations with regional and global records of climate change. Radiocarbon data from this and other studies suggest that the lake oscillated at or near the Provo level much longer than depicted by current models of lake level change. Radiocarbon data also suggest that the lake dropped from threshold control much more rapidly than previously supposed. These revisions to the Lake Bonneville hydrograph, coupled with independent evidence of climate change from vegetation and glacial records, have important implications for conditions in the Bonneville basin and during the Pleistocene to Holocene transition.     

Climate control on stacked paleosols in the Pleistocene of the Po Basin (northern Italy)

Paleosols are recurrent features in alluvial successions and provide information about past sedimentary dynamics and climate change. Through sedimentological analysis on six sediment cores, the mud-dominated succession beneath the medieval ‘Two Towers’ of Bologna was investigated down to 100 m depth. A succession of weakly developed paleosols (Inceptisols) was identified. Four paleosols (P1, P2, P3 and PH) were radiocarbon-dated to 40–10 cal ka bp . Organic matter and CaCO₃ determinations indicate low groundwater levels during soil development, which spanned periods < 5 ka. The development and burial of soils, which occurred synchronously in the Bologna region and in other sectors of the Po Plain, are interpreted to reflect climatic and eustatic variations. Climatic oscillations, at the scale of the Bond cycles, controlled soil development and burial during Marine Isotope Stage (MIS) 3 (P1 and P2). Rapid sea-level oscillations probably induced soil development at the MIS 3/2 transition (P3) and favored burial of PH after 10 ka bp . Weakly developed paleosols in alluvial successions can provide clues to millennial-scale climatic and environmental variations. In particular, the paleosol-bearing succession of the Po Plain represents an unprecedent record of environmental changes across the Late Pleistocene (MIS 3 and 2) in the Mediterranean region.     

Plio-Pleistocene mammals from Mille-Logya,Ethiopia, and the post-Hadar faunal change

We describe the non-primate mammalian fauna from the late Pliocene to earliest Pleistocene deposits of Mille-Logya in the Lower Awash Valley, Ethiopia, dated to c. 2.9–2.4 Ma, and divided into three successive units: Gafura, Seraitu, and Uraitele. We identify 41 mammalian taxa (including rodents), the most diverse group being the Bovidae, with 17 taxa. While the Gafura assemblage still resembles those from the earlier Hadar Formation, the younger Seraitu assemblage documents a major turnover. While there is little change in the species present across this interval, the relative abundances of various taxa change dramatically, with suids being largely replaced by open-country bovids (Alcelaphini and Antilopini). We interpret this faunal change as reflective of an environmental shift, contemporaneous with the replacement of Australopithecus afarensis by Homo in the area.     

A late Early Pleistocene pollen record from Fontana Ranuccio (central Italy)

A pollen record from a sediment core drilled underneath the Acheulian site of Fontana Ranuccio provides new data on the vegetation characters in central Italy during the late Early Pleistocene, in a forest phase possibly corresponding to a substage of Marine Isotope Stage 21. A number of tree taxa nowadays extinct in Europe (Cathaya, Tsuga, Taxodium type, Carya and Pterocarya) are present at Fontana Ranuccio in a temperate phase characterised by dense forest conditions, dominated by Alnus and Pterocarya. The comparison of the Fontana Ranuccio record with other dated sites distributed along the Italian peninsula indicates that the floristic and vegetational characters of the Mid Pleistocene revolution present a rather distinct succession of biostratigraphic events. Compared to other Early Pleistocene pollen records from southern Europe, the Italian Peninsula shows greater floristic similarities with the Eastern Mediterranean regions than with the Iberian Peninsula. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.     

黑河新生地区中侏罗世花岗质岩石锆石U-Pb年龄、地球化学特征及岩石成因

黑河新生地区西古兰河以北二长花岗岩的LA-ICP-MS锆石U-Pb同位素测试结果表明,其形成时代为中侏罗世((163.8±1)Ma)。这些中侏罗世二长花岗岩属于弱过铝质高钾钙碱性系列的Ⅰ型花岗岩,明显富集大离子亲石元素(Rb、Ba、Th)和亏损高场强元素(Zr、Hf、Nb、Ta),元素Sr具有明显的负异常,表明其原始岩浆起源于地壳火成岩的部分熔融。结合区域资料同时代火成岩的组合特征和古太平洋板块的构造演化,认为该二长花岗岩形成于活动大陆边缘,而其形成的地球动力学背景可能为古太平洋板块向欧亚板块俯冲造山后的伸展环境。     

甘肃宝积山盆地中侏罗世石拐茨康叶表皮构造及古环境意义

甘肃宝积山盆地中侏罗统窑街组发现茨康类植物化石,通过对其外部形态和表皮构造研究,认定为石拐茨康叶(Czekanowskia(Vachrameevia)shiguaiensis)。对比当前化石及其现存最近对应种(the nearest living equivalent species)—Ginkgo biloba L.的气孔比率,得到宝积山盆地在中侏罗世的古大气CO_2体积分数为1.55×10~(-3),数值接近GEOCARBⅢ碳平衡模型的拟合曲线,表明茨康叶属植物也是恢复古大气CO_2体积分数的良好材料。同时,通过角质层特征进行古环境重建,结果表明宝积山盆地在中侏罗世时期气候较为温和湿润。