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Global Plate Models are widely used in the Earth Sciences to reconstruct the past geographic position of geological and palaeontological samples. However, the application of Global Plate Models to retrieve ‘palaeocoordinates’ is not trivial. Different Global Plate Models exist which vary in their complexity, spatiotemporal coverage, reference frame, and intended use. Consequently, careful consideration of which models are appropriate for any given research question is required. Here, we document and provide access to reconstruction datasets for five Global Plate Models in the palaeomagnetic reference frame. These datasets provide ‘true’ palaeolatitudes for three discrete global grids reconstructed at one-million-year intervals throughout the Phanerozoic (540–0 Ma), offering three key benefits for the Earth Science community: (1) allow users to look up palaeocoordinates for their samples (e.g. fossil occurrences) through simple indexing without having to learn additional software packages; (2) provide palaeocoordinates which have been generated consistently with thorough documentation; (3) provide static files which preserve model output and which can be used to evaluate palaeogeographic differences between Global Plate Models.
Global Plate Models are widely used in the Earth Sciences to reconstruct the past geographic position of geological and palaeontological samples. However, the application of Global Plate Models to retrieve ‘palaeocoordinates’ is not trivial. Different Global Plate Models exist which vary in their complexity, spatiotemporal coverage, reference frame, and intended use. Consequently, careful consideration of which models are appropriate for any given research question is required. Here, we document and provide access to reconstruction datasets for five Global Plate Models in the palaeomagnetic reference frame. These datasets provide ‘true’ palaeolatitudes for three discrete global grids reconstructed at one-million-year intervals throughout the Phanerozoic (540–0 Ma), offering three key benefits for the Earth Science community: (1) allow users to look up palaeocoordinates for their samples (e.g. fossil occurrences) through simple indexing without having to learn additional software packages; (2) provide palaeocoordinates which have been generated consistently with thorough documentation; (3) provide static files which preserve model output and which can be used to evaluate palaeogeographic differences between Global Plate Models.
The tectonics, geography, and climate of the Cretaceous world was a very different from the modern world. At the start of the Cretaceous, the supercontinent of Pangea had just begun to break apart and only a few small ocean basins separated Laurasia, West Gondwana, and East Gondwana. Unlike the modern world, there were no significant continent-continent collisions during the Cretaceous and the continents were low-lying and easily flooded. The transition from a Pangea-like configuration to a more dispersed continental arrangement had important effects on global sea level and climate. During the Early Cretaceous, as the continents rifted apart, the new continental rifts were transformed into young ocean basins. The oceanic lithosphere in these young ocean basins was thermally elevated, which boosted sea level. Sea level, on average, was ∼70 m higher than the present-day. Sea level was highest during the mid-Cretaceous (90 Ma – 80 Ma), with a subsidiary peak ∼ 120 million years ago (early Aptian). Overall, the Cretaceous was much warmer than the present-day (> 10˚C warmer). These very warm times produced oceanic anoxic events (OAEs) and high temperatures in equatorial regions sometimes made terrestrial and shallow marine ecosystems uninhabitable (temperatures > 40˚C). This is unlike anything we have seen in the last 35 million years and may presage the eventual results of man-made global warming. This mostly stable, hot climate regime endured for nearly 80 million years before dramatically terminating with the Chicxulub bolide impact 66 million years ago. Temperatures plummeted to icehouse levels in the “impact winter” resulting from sunlight-absorbing dust and aerosols. As a consequence of the collapse of the food chain, ∼75% of all species were wiped out (Sepkoski, 1996). The effect of this extinction event on global ecosystems was second only to the great Permo-Triassic Extinction (McGhee et al., 2013).
In the face of rising global temperatures, coral reefs experience coral mass bleaching and mortality. Subtropical and mesophotic environments may represent refugia for reef corals under climate change, where they can survive and eventually recolonize degraded areas. Using a comprehensive database of fossil reefs, we empirically assess the efficacy of subtropical, deeper, and turbid mesophotic environments to restore coral reefs after past global warming events. We focus on tropical coral reefs over the last 275 million years and four rapid climate warming events, which coincided with global reef crises in the geological record. In the aftermath of such hyperthermal events, we observed an increase in the proportions of reefs that occur in deeper (blue) mesophotic environments. Additionally, we found a trend of reef distributions and coral shifting towards higher latitudes. The number of coral occurrences in turbid (brown mesophotic) environments also increased after hyperthermal events. Our results suggest that subtropical, blue, and brown mesophotic environments may have served as immediate refugia for shallow-water coral species escaping warming seawater. While the patterns of reef range shifts and the establishment of blue and brown mesophotic refugia following ancient hyperthermal events provide some hope for coral reefs under current climate change, full recovery took sometimes millions of years. Ante el incremento de temperatura global, los arrecifes coralinos están experimentando eventos masivos de blanqueamiento y mortalidad. Los ambientes subtropicales y mesofóticos pueden representar refugios para los corales arrecifales, en los cuales pueden escapar de los efectos del cambio climático, sobrevivir y desde allí recolonizar áreas previamente degradadas. Mediante el uso de una exhaustiva base de datos en arrecifes coralinos, en este estudio se evaluó empíricamente la eficacia de los ambientes subtropicales y mesofóticos, tanto de aguas turbias someras (marrones) como de aguas claras profundas (azules), en la recuperación de arrecifes coralinos después de eventos hipertermales en el pasado. Nuestro enfoque se hizo en los arrecifes coralinos tropicales durante los últimos 275 millones de años y cuatro eventos de rápido calentamiento climático, los cuales coinciden con crisis globales en la ocurrencia de arrecifes en el registro fósil. Como consecuencia de dichos eventos hipertermales, observamos un aumento del número de arrecifes en ambientes mesofóticos de aguas profundas (azules). Además, encontramos una tendencia en la distribución de arrecifes y corales que se desplazan hacia latitudes más altas. También se observó un aumento en el número de corales que estuvieron presentes en ambientes de aguas turbias (marrones) después de dichos eventos hipertermales.Nuestros resultados sugieren que, en el pasado, los ambientes subtropicales, mesofóticos azules y mesofóticos marrones pudieron haber servido como refugios inmediatos para las especies de coral de aguas someras, en los cuales encuentran condiciones atenuantes ante el calentamiento oceánico. Si bien los patrones de desplazamiento de los arrecifes en el rango latitudinal y el establecimiento de refugios mesofóticos de aguas marrones y azules posteriores a eventos hipertermales brindan una luz de esperanza para el futuro de los arrecifes coralinos de cara al cambio climático actual, nuestros resultados evidencian que su total recuperación puede tomar millones de años.
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