fossil evidence for climate change

• In Barbados, coral levels don’t grow above sea level. Preserved coral on land means that sea levels have fell and Barbados is lifting up. 

  • Meaning glaciers advanced and retreated during the quaternary. 
• Pollen:

  • Uniformitarianism - the same plants have been found throughout the quaternary so the climate must have been similar 
• There is no pollen found before 12,000 years ago in Scottish lake deposits. This is because Scotland was covered in ice. So evidence for life was restricted to interglacial periods. 
• Beetles:

  • Preserved better than other insects due to chitin outer wings 
  • Common in Pleistocene - finished with start of recent interglacial 
  • Arctic, alpine, boreal and temperate species found - respond qucikly to climate change 
  • Small so better preserved 
• vertebrate:

  • Bones found in river sands, lake deposits and caves from interglacial periods
  • During most recent glacial period in Britain, there is fossil evidence of mammoths, woolly rhino and reindeer 
  • As climate warmed grasses are replaced by conifers and then deciduous trees 
  • Also the introduction of badgers, foxes and lions 
• Woolly mammoths and woolly rhino were adapted to cold climates. They had a large surface area to volume ratio so lost less heat. 
• Vertebrate limitations:

  • Rare to find in fossil record 
  • Terrestrial so low preservation potential 
  • Large in size so hard to bury quickly. ]