Palaeoclimate background of the diverse Eocene floras of South China

Throughout its ~4.5 billion year history, the Earth has experienced periods of warming and cooling. However, the current drastic increase in global temperatures is well outside of the Earth’s cyclic norms, and evidence for human-caused global climate change is compelling. Paleoclimatology, the study of ancient climate conditions, provides ample evidence for human-caused global climate change by comparing recent conditions with those in the past.

Earth History and Clues from FossilsFossils are like nature’s time capsules. They hold clues about what Earth was like long before people existed. Some fossils show what ancient plants and animals looked like. Others reveal where oceans, forests, or deserts once existed. Fossils are found in layers of rock. The deeper the layer, the older the fossil. By studying these layers, scientists can piece together Earth’s history. Fossils help scientists understand how life and the environment have...

Paleozoic Plate TectonicsThe Paleozoic Era lasted from about 541 to 252 million years ago. During this time, Earth's surface changed dramatically. The movement of tectonic plates, large pieces of Earth's crust, caused continents to shift, oceans to open and close, and mountains to rise. These slow but powerful movements shaped the land and affected life. By the end of the Paleozoic, most of Earth's land had joined into one supercontinent, Pangaea.Science and Engineering Practice (SEP):...

Paleozoic and Mesozoic SeasEarth’s oceans were full of life during the Paleozoic and Mesozoic eras. In the Paleozoic Era, 541 to 252 million years ago, the seas were home to trilobites, brachiopods, and early fish. Coral reefs began to form, and the first vertebrates with jaws appeared. The Mesozoic Era, 252 to 66 million years ago, is often called the Age of Reptiles, but the oceans were just as important. Large marine reptiles like plesiosaurs and mosasaurs ruled the seas, along with...

Wegener and the Continental Drift HypothesisIn the early 1900s, Alfred Wegener, a German scientist, proposed the Continental Drift Hypothesis, the idea that Earth’s continents were once joined together in a supercontinent called Pangaea and slowly drifted apart over millions of years. Although his ideas were not widely accepted then, later discoveries provided evidence supporting continental movement, leading to the modern theory of plate tectonics. Understanding Wegener’s hypothesis helps...

The diverse plant life on Earth—consisting of nearly 400,000 species—can be divided into three broad categories based on biological characteristics: nonvascular, seedless vascular, and seed plants.