Cross-cultural differences in temperament: Comparing paternal ratings of US and Dutch infants

This study conducted longitudinal comparisons of US and Dutch paternal ratings of temperament, measured via the Infant Behaviour Questionnaire-Revised, at 4 months (US n = 99; Dutch n = 127) and 12 months (US n = 66; Dutch n = 112) of age. US fathers rated their infant higher in the broad temperament trait Surgency, and its subscales vocal reactivity, high-intensity pleasure, and activity level. US fathers also rated their infants higher in negative emotionality, and its subscales of sadness, distress to limitations, and fear. Dutch infants received higher ratings in falling reactivity. Though the cultures did not differ in ratings of Orienting/regulatory capacity, US infants were higher on the subscale duration of orienting, and lower in soothability. Significant culture-by-age and culture-by-gender interactions were also noted. Overall, results are largely consistent with those reported for Dutch mothers and speak to considerable differences in early temperament development between cultures viewed as largely similar because of their Western/individualistic orientations

Palaeoclimates: the first two billion years

Earth's climate during the Archaean remains highly uncertain, as the relevant geologic evidence is sparse and occasionally contradictory. Oxygen isotopes in cherts suggest that between 3.5 and 3.2 Gyr ago (Ga) the Archaean climate was hot (55–85 °C); however, the fact that these cherts have experienced only a modest amount of weathering suggests that the climate was temperate, as today. The presence of diamictites in the Pongola Supergroup and the Witwatersrand Basin of South Africa suggests that by 2.9 Ga the climate was glacial. The Late Archaean was relatively warm; then glaciation (possibly of global extent) reappeared in the Early Palaeoproterozoic, around 2.3–2.4 Ga