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Science 29 March 1985:
Vol. 227. no. 4694, pp. 1578 - 1580
DOI: 10.1126/science.227.4694.1578
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Articles

Geologic Youth of Galápagos Islands Confirmed by Marine Stratigraphy and Paleontology

CAROLE S. HICKMAN 1 and JERE H. LIPPS 2

1 Department ofPaleontology, University of California, Berkeley 94720
2 Department of Geology, University of California, Davis 95616

Six distinctive types of fossiliferous marine deposits occur on the Galádpagos Islands that provide evidence for the age of emergence of the islands above sea level and hence a maximum age for the islands' terrestrial biota. These subtidal to supratidal deposits include (i) volcanic tuffs with fossils, (ii) limestones and sandstones interbedded with basalt, (iii) terrace deposits, (iv) beach rock, (v) supratidal talus deposits, and (vi) recently uplifted tidal and subtidal rocks and sand. With the exception of (vi), the deposits were previously assigned ages varying from Miocene to Pleistocene, but all are less than about 2 million years old. This age, together with independently determined geologic ages, indicate that the islands emerged from the sea relatively recently and that all evolution of the islands' unique terrestrial biota occurred within the past 3 to 4 million years.

Submitted on December 3, 1984
Accepted on January 15, 1985


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Calibrating the Tree of Life: fossils, molecules and evolutionary timescales.
F. Forest (2009)
Ann. Bot. 104, 789-794
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
THE EVOLUTIONARY AND BIOGEOGRAPHIC ORIGINS OF THE ENDEMIC PECTINIDAE (MOLLUSCA: BIVALVIA) OF THE GALAPAGOS ISLANDS.
T. R. WALLER (2007)
Journal of Paleontology 81, 929-950
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »


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