High bat (Chiroptera) diversity in the Early Eocene of India

The geographic origin of bats is still unknown, and fossils of earliest bats are rare and poorly diversified, with, maybe, the exception of Europe. The earliest bats are recorded from the Early Eocene of North America, Europe, North Africa and Australia where they seem to appear suddenly and simultaneously. Until now, the oldest record in Asia was from the Middle Eocene. In this paper, we report the discovery of the oldest bat fauna of Asia dating from the Early Eocene of the Cambay Formation at Vastan Lignite Mine in Western India. The fossil taxa are described on the basis of well-preserved fragments of dentaries and lower teeth. The fauna is highly diversified and is represented by seven species belonging to seven genera and at least four families. Two genera and five species are new. Three species exhibit very primitive dental characters, whereas four others indicate more advanced states. Unexpectedly, this fauna presents strong affinities with the European faunas from the French Paris Basin and the German Messel locality. This could result from the limited fossil record of bats in Asia, but could also suggest new palaeobiogeographic scenarios involving the relative position of India during the Early Eocene

Coastal Management: A guide to using archaeological, palaeoenvironmental, historical and artistic resources

This ‘Guide’ has been produced as part of the project ‘Archaeology, art and coastal heritage: tools to support coastal management and climate change planning across the Channel Regional Sea’ (Arch-Manche). It details how data sources have been identified, ranked and analysed together to provide evidence of coastal change. Experiences of deploying a range of field investigation techniques to gather scientific data supporting understanding of past coastal change are detailed. The importance of this work in relation to coastal management is presented through a range of results from case studies within areas exhibiting different physical and geomorphological characteristics. The results demonstrate the asyet unrealised potential within archaeological, paleoenvironmental, historical and artistic resources to inform on the scale and pace of coastal change

Enhanced Mid-depth Southward Transport in the Northeast Atlantic at the Last Glacial Maximum Despite a Weaker AMOC

While previous studies consistently suggest that North Atlantic Deep Water (NADW) was shallower at the Last Glacial Maximum (LGM) than at pre-industrial, its strength is still controversial. Here, using a series of LGM experiments, we show that proxy records are consistent with a shallower and ∼50% weaker NADW, associated with a ∼3◦ equatorward shift of the sea ice edge and convection sites in the Norwegian Sea. A shoaling and weakening of NADW further allow penetration of Antarctic Bottom Water in the North Atlantic, despite Antarctic Bottom Water transport being reduced by ∼40%. While the Deep Western Boundary Current in the northwest Atlantic weakens with NADW, the mid-depth southward flow on the east side of the north Mid-Atlantic Ridge strengthens, consistent with paleorecords. This northeast Atlantic intensification is due to a change in density gradients: a weaker AMOC reduces the transport of equatorial waters to the northeast Atlantic, thus weakening the North Atlantic zonal density gradient. The resultant globally weaker oceanic circulation at the LGM would have contributed to an increase in oceanic carbon content and thus a decrease in atmospheric CO2 concentration.This project was supported by the Australian Research Council. L. C. M., L. M., P. S., and J. Y. acknowledge funding from the Australian Research Council Grants DE150100107, DP180100048, DE150100223, FT140100993, FT180100606, and DP140101393. L. C. S. acknowledges support from NERC Grant NE/L006421/1