Plio-Pleistocene African Climate
- 6 October 1995
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) in Science
- Vol. 270 (5233) , 53-59
- https://doi.org/10.1126/science.270.5233.53
Abstract
Marine records of African climate variability document a shift toward more arid conditions after 2.8 million years ago (Ma), evidently resulting from remote forcing by cold North Atlantic sea-surface temperatures associated with the onset of Northern Hemisphere glacial cycles. African climate before 2.8 Ma was regulated by low-latitude insolation forcing of monsoonal climate due to Earth orbital precession. Major steps in the evolution of African hominids and other vertebrates are coincident with shifts to more arid, open conditions near 2.8 Ma, 1.7 Ma, and 1.0 Ma, suggesting that some Pliocene (Plio)-Pleistocene speciation events may have been climatically mediated.Keywords
This publication has 56 references indexed in Scilit:
- The role of ocean-atmosphere reorganizations in glacial cyclesPublished by Elsevier ,2003
- The paleoclimatic record provided by eolian deposition in the deep sea: The geologic history of windReviews of Geophysics, 1994
- On the structure and origin of major glaciation cycles 2. The 100,000‐year cyclePaleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 1993
- Influences of High‐ and Low‐Latitude Processes on African Terrestrial Climate: Pleistocene Eolian Records from Equatorial Atlantic Ocean Drilling Program Site 663Paleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 1993
- Reconstruction of glaciation over the past 6 Myr from ice-borne deposits in the Norwegian SeaNature, 1991
- The arid–humid transition in the Sahara and the Sahel during the last deglaciationNature, 1990
- Pleistocene evolution: Northern hemisphere ice sheets and North Atlantic OceanPaleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 1989
- Surface water response of the equatorial Atlantic Ocean to orbital forcingPaleoceanography and Paleoclimatology, 1989
- Effect of drought on dust production in the SahelNature, 1985
- Cultural beginnings: Plio-Pleistocene archaeological occurrences from the Afar, EthiopiaAfrican Archaeological Review, 1983