Journal article
Early Miocene elevation in northern Tibet estimated by palaeobotanical evidence
Scientific Reports, Vol.5, 10379
2015
Abstract
The area and elevation of the Tibetan Plateau over time has directly affected Asia's topography, the characteristics of the Asian monsoon, and modified global climate, but in ways that are poorly understood. Charting the uplift history is crucial for understanding the mechanisms that link elevation and climate irrespective of time and place. While some palaeoelevation data are available for southern and central Tibet, clues to the uplift history of northern Tibet remain sparse and largely circumstantial. Leaf fossils are extremely rare in Tibet but here we report a newly discovered early Miocene barberry (Berberis) from Wudaoliang in the Hoh-Xil Basin in northern Tibet, at a present altitude of 4611±9 m. Considering the fossil and its nearest living species probably occupied a similar or identical environmental niche, the palaeoelevation of the fossil locality, corrected for Miocene global temperature difference, is estimated to have been between 1395 and 2931 m, which means this basin has been uplifted ~2-3 km in the last 17 million years. Our findings contradict hypotheses that suggest northern Tibet had reached or exceeded its present elevation prior to the Miocene.
Details
- Title
- Early Miocene elevation in northern Tibet estimated by palaeobotanical evidence
- Authors
- Bin Sun (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaYu-Fei Wang (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaCheng-Sen Li (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaJian Yang (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaJin-Feng Li (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaTao Deng (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaShi-Qi Wang (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaMin Zhao (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaRobert A Spice (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaDavid K Ferguson (Author) - Chinese Academy of Sciences, ChinaRakesh C Mehrotra (Author) - Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, India
- Publication details
- Scientific Reports, Vol.5, 10379; 6
- Publisher
- Nature Publishing Group
- Date published
- 2015
- DOI
- 10.1038/srep10379
- ISSN
- 2045-2322
- Copyright note
- Copyright © 2015 The Authors. This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. The images or other third party material in this article are included in the article's Creative Commons license, unless indicated otherwise in the credit line; if the material is not included under the Creative Commons license, users will need to obtain permission from the license holder to reproduce the material. To view a copy of this license, visit http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
- Organisation Unit
- School of Science and Engineering - Legacy; University of the Sunshine Coast, Queensland; School of Science, Technology and Engineering; Centre for Bioinnovation
- Language
- English
- Record Identifier
- 99450567602621
- Output Type
- Journal article
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