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Originally published in Science Express on 16 June 2005
Science 22 July 2005:
Vol. 309. no. 5734, pp. 600 - 603
DOI: 10.1126/science.1110063
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Reports

Marked Decline in Atmospheric Carbon Dioxide Concentrations During the Paleogene

Mark Pagani,1 James C. Zachos,2 Katherine H. Freeman,3 Brett Tipple,1 Stephen Bohaty2

The relation between the partial pressure of atmospheric carbon dioxide (pCO2) and Paleogene climate is poorly resolved. We used stable carbon isotopic values of di-unsaturated alkenones extracted from deep sea cores to reconstruct pCO2 fromthe middle Eocene to the late Oligocene (~45 to 25 million years ago). Our results demonstrate that pCO2 ranged between 1000 to 1500 parts per million by volume in the middle to late Eocene, then decreased in several steps during the Oligocene, and reached modern levels by the latest Oligocene. The fall in pCO2 likely allowed for a critical expansion of ice sheets on Antarctica and promoted conditions that forced the onset of terrestrial C4 photosynthesis.

1 Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, 210 Whitney Avenue, New Haven, CT 06511, USA.
2 Earth Sciences Department, University of California, 1156 High Street, Santa Cruz, CA 95064, USA.
3 Department of Geosciences, Pennsylvania State University, University Park, PA 16802, USA.

Published online 16 June 2005

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