Articles | Volume 16, issue 4
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1387-2020
https://doi.org/10.5194/cp-16-1387-2020
Research article
 | 
04 Aug 2020
Research article |  | 04 Aug 2020

Paleobotanical proxies for early Eocene climates and ecosystems in northern North America from middle to high latitudes

Christopher K. West, David R. Greenwood, Tammo Reichgelt, Alexander J. Lowe, Janelle M. Vachon, and James F. Basinger

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Cited articles

Archibald, S. B., Bossert, W. H., Greenwood, D. R., and Farrell, B. D.: Seasonality, the latitudinal gradient of diversity, and Eocene insects, Paleobiology, 36, 374–398, 2010. 
Archibald, S. B., Greenwood, D. R., Smith, R. Y., Mathewes, R. W., and Basinger, J. F.: Great Canadian Lagerstätten 1. Early Eocene Lagerstätten of the Okanagan Highlands (British Columbia and Washington State), Geosci. Can., 38, 155–164, 2011. 
Archibald, S. B., Greenwood, D. R., and Mathewes, R. W.: Seasonality, montane beta diversity, and Eocene insects: testing Janzen's dispersal hypothesis in an equable world, Palaeogeogr. Palaeocl., 371, 1–8, 2013. 
Archibald, S. B., Morse, G. E., Greenwood, D. R., and Mathewes, R. W.: Fossil palm beetles refine upland winter temperatures in the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum, P. Natl. Acad. Sci. USA, 111, 8095–8100, 2014. 
Basinger, J. F., Greenwood, D. R., and Sweda, T.: Early Tertiary vegetation of Arctic Canada and its relevance to paleoclimatic interpretation, in: Cenozoic plants and climates of the Arctic, Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg, 175–198, 1994. 
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Short summary
During the globally warm early Eocene 56 million years ago, lush forests extended up to the high Arctic. Fossil plants from the Canadian High Arctic and Pacific Northwest of North America are a window into this past greenhouse world. We used an improved method for plant fossil climate reconstruction that provides a consensus reconstruction from all available proxies. Results show that the early Eocene climate in northern North America was similar across a broad range of latitudes.