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Accelerated Pleistocene coral extinctions in the Caribbean Basin shown by uranium-lead (U-Pb) dating

¹ Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences, University of New Mexico, Albuquerque, New Mexico 87131, USA
² College of Marine Science, University of South Florida, St. Petersburg, Florida 33701, USA
³ Department of Geoscience, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, USA

Ages of corals and shallow-marine sequences define rates of marine invertebrate evolution, tectonic uplift, and paleoclimate change, yet accurate ages are difficult to obtain prior to the late Pleistocene. We report a new approach for combining uranium-lead (U- Pb) and uranium-series dating for middle Pleistocene corals from the Caribbean side of Costa Rica. Two corals have ²³⁰Th/²³⁸U in secular equilibrium, small excesses in ²³⁴U, and ²⁰⁶Pb^*/²³⁸U ages of 1.02 ± 0.07 Ma and 1.288 ± 0.034 Ma. The latter coral age dates a recognized geomagnetic event to ca. 1.3 Ma, a time at which no polarity events had been identified. The new ages also show that the major coral extinction in the Caribbean Basin occurred shortly after 1.0–0.9 Ma, much more recently than previously thought. This coral extinction now coincides with the global change at 1.0–0.8 Ma to the current pattern of glacial-interglacial cycles and amplified changes in sea level. These factors may have provided a new, strong environmental mechanism for rapid habitat modification and coral extinction.

Key Words: corals • ²³⁸U-²⁰⁶Pb • Pleistocene • paleomagnetism • extinction • Costa Rica

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