Back to Search
Start Over
Major turnover of biotas across the Oligocene/Miocene boundary on the Tibetan Plateau
- Source :
- Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology. 567:110241
- Publication Year :
- 2021
- Publisher :
- Elsevier BV, 2021.
-
Abstract
- In this paper, we review evidence for a major biotic turnover across the Oligocene/Miocene in the Tibetan Plateau region. Based on the recent study of six well-preserved fossil sites from the Cenozoic Lunpola and Nima basins in the central Tibetan Plateau, we report a regional changeover from tropical/subtropical ecosystems in the Late Oligocene ecosystem (26–24 Ma) to a cooler, alpine biota of the Early Miocene (23–18 Ma). The Late Oligocene fossil biota, comprising of fish (climbing perch), insects and plants (palms), shows that the hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau was a warm lowland influenced by tropical humidity from the Indian Ocean. In the Early Miocene, the regional biota became transformed, with the evolution and diversification of the endemic primitive snow carp. Early Miocene vegetation was dominated by temperate broad-leaved forest with abundant conifers and herbs under a cool climate, and mammals included the hornless rhinoceros, Plesiaceratherium, a warm temperate taxon. This dramatic ecosystem change is due to a cooling linked to the uplift of Tibetan region, from a Late Oligocene paleo-elevation of no greater than 2300 m a.s.l. in the sedimentary basin to a paleo-elevation of about 3000 m a.s.l. Another factor was the Cenozoic global climatic deterioration toward to an ice-house world.
- Subjects :
- 010506 paleontology
geography
Plateau
geography.geographical_feature_category
Ecology
Paleontology
Biota
Subtropics
Vegetation
Sedimentary basin
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
Oceanography
01 natural sciences
Temperate climate
Ecosystem
Cenozoic
Ecology, Evolution, Behavior and Systematics
Geology
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Earth-Surface Processes
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 00310182
- Volume :
- 567
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........c83408c382de5d0f3b0742f4704222d7