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Science 18 December 1998:
Vol. 282. no. 5397, pp. 2241 - 2243
DOI: 10.1126/science.282.5397.2241
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Reports

Evidence for Extreme Climatic Warmth from Late Cretaceous Arctic Vertebrates

J. A. Tarduno, * D. B. Brinkman, P. R. Renne, R. D. Cottrell, H. Scher, P. Castillo

A Late Cretaceous (92 to 86 million years ago) vertebrate assemblage from the high Canadian Arctic (Axel Heiberg Island) implies that polar climates were warm (mean annual temperature exceeding 14°C) rather than near freezing. The assemblage includes large (2.4 meters long) champsosaurs, which are extinct crocodilelike reptiles. Magmatism at six large igneous provinces at this time suggests that volcanic carbon dioxide emissions helped cause the global warmth.

J. A. Tarduno, R. D. Cottrell, H. Scher, Department of Earth and Environmental Sciences, University of Rochester, Rochester, NY, 14627, USA. D. B. Brinkman, Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology, Drumheller, Alberta, TOJ OYO, Canada. P. R. Renne, Berkeley Geochronology Center, Berkeley, CA 94709, USA. P. Castillo, Geological Research Division, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA 92093-0220, USA.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: john{at}earth.rochester.edu

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