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Fish tooth ¹⁸O revising Late Cretaceous meridional upper ocean water temperature gradients

¹ UMR CNRS, 5561Biogéosciences, 6 Boulevard Gabriel, 21000 Dijon, France
² UMR CNRS, 5125 PaléoEnvironnement et PaléobioSphère, Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1, Bât. Géode, 27–43 Boulevard du 11 Novembre 1918, 69622 Villeurbanne Cedex, France
³ UMR CEA/CNRS, 1572 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, CE Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, Bât. 701, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
⁴ UMR CNRS, 5554 Institut des Sciences de l'Evolution de Montpellier, Université de Montpellier II, Cc 064, Place Eugène Bataillon, 34095 Montpellier Cedex 5, France
⁵ UMR CEA/CNRS, 1572 Laboratoire des Sciences du Climat et de l'Environnement, CE Saclay, Orme des Merisiers, Bat. 701, 91191 Gif sur Yvette Cedex, France
⁶ Department of Paleobiology, National Museum of Natural History, P.O. Box 37012 NHB MRC 121, Washington, D.C. 20013-7012, USA
⁷ Museum of National History, Invalidenstrasse 43, 10115 Berlin, Germany

The oxygen isotope composition of fossil fish teeth, a paleo–upper ocean temperature proxy exceptionally resistant to diagenetic alteration, provides new insight on the evolution of the low- to middle-latitude thermal gradient between the middle Cretaceous climatic optimum and the cooler latest Cretaceous period. The new middle Cretaceous low to middle latitude thermal gradient agrees with that previously inferred from planktonic foraminifera ¹⁸O recovered from Deep Sea Drilling Project and Ocean Drilling Program drilling sites, although the isotopic temperatures derived from ¹⁸O of fish teeth are uniformly higher by 3–4 °C. In contrast, our new latest Cretaceous thermal gradient is markedly steeper than those previously published for this period. Fish tooth ¹⁸O data demonstrate that low- to middle-latitude thermal gradients of the middle Cretaceous climatic optimum and of the cooler latest Cretaceous are similar to the modern one, despite a cooling of 7 °C between the two periods. Our new results imply that no drastic changes in meridional heat transport are required to explain the Late Cretaceous climate. Based on climate models, such a cooling without any change in the low to mid- decrease dle latitude thermal gradient supports an atmospheric CO₂ as the primary driver of the climatic evolution recorded during the Late Cretaceous.

Key Words: Cretaceous • climate • oxygen isotopes • apatite

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