Paleogeography and paleoclimate of a unique Paleogene biota in arctic Canada

California Academy Of Sciences, San Francisco CA

Investigators

Abstract

0124654 Marincovich This Americas Program SGER (Small Grants for Exploratory Research) award will allow Dr. Louie Marincovich and a group of U.S. and Canadian researchers to undertake a three-week trip in July 2001, near Bay Fiord in west-central Ellesmere Island, as a pilot study that will, for the first time, coordinate the efforts of several specialists to decipher the paleobiogeographic and paleoclimatic importance of the unique biota of this area. The award will be jointly supported between the Division of International Programs and the Geology and Paleontology Program of NSF. Rocks of the Eureka Sound Group on Ellesmere Island, northern Canada (78-79 degree N latitude), record an unusual time, 50-60 million years ago, when the high Arctic was home to alligators, giant tortoises, diverse mammals, (including primates and rhinoceroses), woodlands and vast lowland swamps. Mollusks thrived on land and in the adjacent warm ocean. Although little-known overall, these diverse and abundant fossils are the only well-preserved record of the Earth's early Cenozoic arctic climate, and comprise the northernmost known marine and terrestrial biota of this age These animals and plants lived in an extinct environment, combining a warm-temperate climate with an arctic light regime of bright summers and dark winters. The presence of this diverse and abundant early Cenozoic marine and terrestrial biota at such high latitudes comprises what may be the most profound paleontological mystery in the Arctic. Studying the fossil vertebrates, plants and mollusks will increase our understanding of this rich biota, refine its age, provide insights into long-severed European-North American land connections, and decipher the polar expression of the warmest global climate of the past 65 million years. ***