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Poster De Conférence Année : 2018

Assessing mid-Paleocene climate using fossil leaves

Résumé

The Paleocene was a globally warm period marked by several climatic variations. The most famous one is the abrupt warming event at the Paleocene-Eocene boundary, known as the PETM. Variations of the climate from middle to late Paleocene are comparatively less well documented, especially at middle latitudes. In this study, we analysed two famous fossil leaf assemblages, described during the 19th and 20th centuries by Saporta and Mai, namely Gelinden (Selandian, Belgium) and Menat (Selandian, France), in order to compare these two localities and to assess the continental paleoclimate for western Europe. Leaf morphology was used to calculate main paleotemperature and paleoprecipitation variables, using the Climate Leaf Analysis Multivariate Program (CLAMP) and the Climate Leaf Analysis with Neural Networks (CLANN) approaches. Preliminary results indicate a moderately warm, humid and seasonal climate for both localities. However, we observed some differences between the two approaches. CLANN leads to wider temperature and precipitation ranges, and higher MAT for both Gelinden and Menat. This is particularly a problem when the locality is outside of the model limits, and this approach might not be optimal for ancient floras without modern analogues as this is the case for both localities. CLAMP results showed that Gelinden paleoclimatic conditions were warmer and more humid as compared to Menat. According to the Köppen-Geiger climate classification, Gelinden climate represents an intermediate between subtropical humid climate (warm temperate without dry season climate) and Mediterranean-type climate (warm temperate with dry season), while Menat would be more representative of the second type. Subtropical humid climate is found nowadays for instance in China, in Southern Japan and in the southern part of North America. In agreement with oceanic proxies, both fossil floras suggest subtropical to warm temperate climates during the mid-Paleocene in western Europe.
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Dates et versions

hal-03719524 , version 1 (11-07-2022)

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  • HAL Id : hal-03719524 , version 1

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Mélanie Tanrattana, Dario De Franceschi, Anais A Boura. Assessing mid-Paleocene climate using fossil leaves. 5th palaeontological International COngress, Jul 2018, Paris, France. ⟨hal-03719524⟩
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