Extinct South American pachyrukhines were mammals with tall teeth thought to be optimized for grazing. Image credit: Shutterstock/Mariano Jedrzejewski.
#Tooth structure isn’t always a good indicator of #diet in ancient #animals. In PNAS Journal Club: https://ow.ly/X5wz50YcV65
#teeth #mammal #omnivore #fossils #ungulate #Miocene #Pliocene
A fascinating study of the Thwaites and Pine Island Glaciers during the Pliocene (5.33-2.58 million years ago) shows repeated rapid collapse cycles at the temperatures we are now heading for.
www.pnas.org/doi/epdf/10....
#climatechange #paleoclimate #Antarctica #Thwaites #Pliocene #sealevelrise
First 2026 issue @pnas.org features @khorikawa.bsky.social et al.'s work on deep marine sediment from #AmundsenSea. #Pliocene muds contain material from bedrock sources as far inland as #EllsworthWhitmore Mountains: a sign of major #WAIS retreat & #glacial- #deglacial switching ow.ly/wHeq50XTv2n
this new pub by @khorikawa.bsky.social er al. features a high resolution record of the #WAIS during
#MPWP, and another by @passchier.bsky.social et al. illuminates the early #Pliocene climate shifts and #icesheet change scienmag.com/early-plioce...
富山大学 @khorikawa.bsky.social et al reveal a special signature of #WAIS deep retreat to #EllsworthMountains, occurring repeatedly in mid #Pliocene
Our latest paper was published in PNAS. This presents the geochemical evidence for the collapse of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet during the mid-Pliocene, based on results from IODP Exp 379 (2019).
#AmundsenSea #IODP #Exp379 #Pliocene
Animation/model simulation of Antarctic ice sheet fluctuations ~ 5 to 2.5 Ma [#MPWP #Pliocene]. WAIS expands in response to cooling & shrinks as temperatures warm. The model by ARHalberstadt implements time-evolving ocean and atmosphere temperatures,& ties to IODP379 #SiteU1532 sediment core.
Int‘l collaborative project led by K.Horikawa: Repeated major inland retreat of #Thwaites & #PineIsland glaciers (#WestAntarctica) #Pliocene. Check out R Halberstadt’s model simulation : youtu.be/uu2vlzrP2vk
The #ThwaitesGlacier region has a prior history of dramatic #glacial-deglacial switching in the #Pliocene www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Evidence of rapid glacial-deglacial switching, from a high resolution record from #Pliocene marine sediments, foretells #WestAntarctica 's future theconversation.com/west-antarct...
Increased seismicity and magmatism in #WestAntarctica - two of the consequences of #glacial-deglacial switching in the #Pliocene and in the near future #AmundsenSea theconversation.com/west-antarct...
#Geologists can't help get enthused about "real time" processes: regional events that happen swiftly, as opposed to long, slow, gradual change per #Hutton 's Principle of #Uniformitarianism. Take, for example, 🇦🇶 #WestAntarctica 🇦🇶 in the #Pliocene:
Happy to see our #IODP379 pub post today! Great working with #AmundsenSea and #JOIDESResolution and #IODP #GulfCoastRepository on int‘l collaborative project led by K.Horikawa: Repeated major inland retreat of #Thwaites & #PineIsland glaciers (#WestAntarctica) #Pliocene www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/...
Fossils found from California to Alaska reveal key stages in the evolution of modern Pacific salmon. #Paleontology #Paleoichthyology #EvolutionaryBiology #Ichthyology #FossilFish #Miocene #Pliocene
🦈Megalodon Art!🦈
They where so enormous than a modern day shark.
#megalodon #shark #sharks #fish #prehistoric #prehistoricanimal #extinctanimal #water #sea #seacreature #animal #animals #extinct #miocene #pliocene #neogene #sketchbook #pencils #markers #traditionalart
More reading tips: Early #Oldowan technology thrived during #Pliocene #environmental change in the #Turkana Basin, #Kenya www.nature.com/articles/s41... #humanpast #interdisciplinary #archaeology #Africa
Black-and-white pencil drawing of a predation scene in the shallow coastal waters of California during the Pliocene. Near a large rock, a mother Herpetocetus morrowi (four-meter-long baleen whale) rests at the surface with her newborn calf balancing on her back. She has just begun to curve downwards in a dive, as a relatively large Homotherium sabertooth-cat is leaping towards her tiny calf with its front paws outstretched. The large cat had been crouched atop the nearby rock. In the distance, a massive cumulus cloud sits just above the surface of the open ocean. On the seafloor below are two small sea urchins, and on the base of the large rock near the seafloor is a Pacific Rock Crab.
On the coast of Pliocene California, a Homotherium pounces upon a newborn Herpetocetus morrowi. These are Cetotheres, small baleen whales that thrived during the Miocene/Pliocene. For the sabertooth, such a tiny calf so close to shore is a rare treat. #paleoart #sciart #pliocene #california
Nice synopsis of #IODP379 #AmundsenSea research that examines the early #Pliocene record of warming of West Antarctica, using sediment cores from deep sea @passchier.bsky.social @wellner.bsky.social
#JOIDESResolution
A colored-pencil illustration of the salamander Dynamognathus robertsoni, portrayed starting directly at the viewer from the entrance of a burrow. It is mostly deep purplish in color, with rusty orange stripes running from its bright green eyes to the corners of its wide mouth. The dirt surrounding it is a mottled brown, and two large, rusty-brown alder roots frame the top and left edges of the piece. A few large alder leaves, pale and yellowish, lie on the ground near the burrow. In the bottom left corner of the piece is a seedling of Corylopsis grisea, sprouting from a large, half-buried seed near the alder root.
It’s been a few months since it was initially described, but here’s my informative/appreciation posts for Dynamognathus robertsoni, a very cool #Pliocene critter and my new personal mascot. 🧵
#grayfossilsite #paleoart #sciart #salamander #Dynamognathus #cenozoic
A partial carbonified leaf on a small block of greyish-blue clay. The color of these clays gives the Argille Azzurre Formation its name (literally "Blue Clays Formation").
Plate from the 1885 book "Flora von Deutschland, Österreich und der Schweiz", with illustrations of a modern species of the genus Celtis, the European nettle tree or Mediterranean hackberry (Celtis australis), native to Southern Europe, West Asia and Northern Africa.
#FossilFriday: a fragmentary leaf of a hackberry (Celtis, Cannabaceae) from the Pliocene of the Argille Azzurre Formation, found by me in Cuneo Province, Piedmont.
#paleobotany #fossil #Pliocene
Researchers have identified a previously unknown genus and species of #mole that lived during the #Pliocene era, called Vulcanoscaptor ninoti ("the Camp dels Ninots volcano digger").
Read more and subscribe in the top-left corner for more #news in #maps: us10.campaign-archive.com?u=023a4ebf81...
#Turtle expert Milan Chroust presents his #EAVP2025 poster, 'Heosemys mossoczyi, a puzzling geoemydid #turtle from the #Pliocene of #Poland'
New research challenges a long-held assumption: northern Africa didn't dry out during the Pliocene-Pleistocene. Stable rainfall reshapes our view of early human evolution. #Paleoanthropology #Pliocene #ClimateHistory #HumanOrigins
Colored-pencil drawing of the coyote-like canid Eucyon adoxus in side-view, facing towards the left with its mouth open. To the right of it is a vertical fifty-centimeter scale bar, just barely shorter than the animal’s back. It is overall various shades of brown and grey, with the ear and surrounding fur being more orange-tinted, the belly and mouth-area being pale, and a large triangle-shaped saddle patch above the shoulder being dark brownish-grey.
Drew another animal from Pliocene Europe (possibly contemporary with Xenocervulus), the canine Eucyon adoxus. Eucyon as a whole is more or less the basal radiation of the subtribe Canina, though the phylogeny and taxonomy of the various species is still being worked on. #sciart #paleoart #pliocene
#Pliocene cometh
Los investigadores han dirigido sus estudios hacia dos aspectos del tamaño: la longitud total (LT) y la masa corporal (MC).
#tiburón #shark #otodusmegalodon #carcharocles #carcharoclesmegalodon #prehistoria #prehistory #Pliocene #Miocene #otodontidae #lamniformes #divulgacióncientífica
