Note to users. If you're seeing this message, it means that your browser cannot find this page's style/presentation instructions -- or possibly that you are using a browser that does not support current Web standards. Find out more about why this message is appearing, and what you can do to make your experience of our site the best it can be.
DNA Star, Inc.

Site Tools

  • AAAS
  • Subscribe
  • Feedback

Site Search

Search Advanced

Science 27 August 1999:
Vol. 285. no. 5432, pp. 1386 - 1390
DOI: 10.1126/science.285.5432.1386

Reports

Fossil Plants and Global Warming at the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary

J. C. McElwain, * D. J. Beerling, F. I. Woodward

The Triassic-Jurassic boundary marks a major faunal mass extinction, but records of accompanying environmental changes are limited. Paleobotanical evidence indicates a fourfold increase in atmospheric carbon dioxide concentration and suggests an associated 3° to 4°C "greenhouse" warming across the boundary. These environmental conditions are calculated to have raised leaf temperatures above a highly conserved lethal limit, perhaps contributing to the >95 percent species-level turnover of Triassic-Jurassic megaflora.

Department of Animal and Plant Sciences, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, S10 2TN, UK.
*   To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: J.McElwain{at}sheffield.ac.uk


Read the Full Text


THIS ARTICLE HAS BEEN CITED BY OTHER ARTICLES:
Superiority, Competition, and Opportunism in the Evolutionary Radiation of Dinosaurs.
S. L. Brusatte, M. J. Benton, M. Ruta, and G. T. Lloyd (2008)
Science 321, 1485-1488
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Feedbacks and the coevolution of plants and atmospheric CO2.
D. J. Beerling and R. A. Berner (2005)
PNAS 102, 1302-1305
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Corrected Late Triassic Latitudes for Continents Adjacent to the North Atlantic.
D. V. Kent and L. Tauxe (2005)
Science 307, 240-244
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Synchrony of the Central Atlantic magmatic province and the Triassic-Jurassic boundary climatic and biotic crisis.
(2004)
Geology 32, 973-976
Sea-level change and facies development across potential Triassic-Jurassic boundary horizons, SW Britain.
S. P. Hesselbo, S. P. Hesselbo, S. A. Robinson, and F. Surlyk (2004)
Journal of the Geological Society 161, 365-379
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Evidence of plant-insect interactions in the Upper Triassic Molteno Formation of South Africa.
A. C. Scott, A. C. Scott, J. M. Anderson, and H. M. Anderson (2004)
Journal of the Geological Society 161, 401-410
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Dissecting "Lithiotis" Bivalves: Implications for the Early Jurassic Reef Eclipse.
(2004)
Palaios 19, 51-67
Variation in Ginkgo biloba L. leaf characters across a climatic gradient in China.
B. Sun, D. L. Dilcher, D. J. Beerling, C. Zhang, D. Yan, and E. Kowalski (2003)
PNAS 100, 7141-7146
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Carbon and nitrogen isotope disturbances and an end-Norian (Late Triassic) extinction event.
(2002)
Geology 30, 1119-1122
.
P. V. Minorsky (2002)
Plant Physiology 129, 1421-1422
   Full Text »    PDF »
Chemostratigraphy of the Jurassic System: applications, limitations and implications for palaeoceanography.
H. C. Jenkyns, H. C. Jenkyns, C. E. Jones, D. R. GrOcke, S. P. Hesselbo, and D. N. Parkinson (2002)
Journal of the Geological Society 159, 351-378
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Ascent of Dinosaurs Linked to an Iridium Anomaly at the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary.
P. E. Olsen, D. V. Kent, H.-D. Sues, C. Koeberl, H. Huber, A. Montanari, E. C. Rainforth, S. J. Fowell, M. J. Szajna, and B. W. Hartline (2002)
Science 296, 1305-1307
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
Terrestrial and marine extinction at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary synchronized with major carbon-cycle perturbation: A link to initiation of massive volcanism?.
(2002)
Geology 30, 251-254
Carbon isotope anomaly and other geochemical changes at the Triassic-Jurassic boundary from a marine section in Hungary.
(2001)
Geology 29, 1047-1050
Assessing the potential for the stomatal characters of extant and fossil Ginkgo leaves to signal atmospheric CO2 change.
L.-Q. Chen, C.-S. Li, W. G. Chaloner, D. J. Beerling, Q.-G. Sun, M. E. Collinson, and P. L. Mitchell (2001)
Am. J. Botany 88, 1309-1315
   Abstract »    Full Text »    PDF »
New evidence for geologically instantaneous emplacement of earliest Jurassic Central Atlantic magmatic province basalts on the North American margin.
(2000)
Geology 28, 859-862
Phytogeography and Paleoecology in Western Europe and Eastern Greenland Near the Triassic-Jurassic Boundary.
(2000)
Palaios 15, 120-131
El Nino-Southern Oscillation mass mortalities of reef corals: a model of high temperature marine extinctions?.
P. W. Glynn (2000)
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 178, 117-133
   Abstract »    PDF »



ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

ADVERTISEMENT
Click Me!

To Advertise     Find Products


Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)