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1 June 2011 PALEOCLIMATIC AND PALEOECOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A PALEOCENE–EOCENE FOSSIL LEAF ASSEMBLAGE, CHICKALOON FORMATION, ALASKA
DAVID SUNDERLIN, GARRISON LOOPE, NANCY E. PARKER, CHRISTOPHER J. WILLIAMS
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Abstract

New collections of a leaf compression-impression paleoflora preserved in fluvio-lacustrine sediments of the upper Chickaloon Formation, south-central Alaska, United States, provide leaf physiognomic climate estimates for the early Eocene in southern Alaska and rare data on plant-insect interactions from a subarctic setting. Thirty-nine broadleaf angiosperm morphotypes occur in a parautochthonous assemblage along with Metasequoia shoots and trunks, compressions of a diverse suite of seeds, monocotyledonous aquatic plants, freshwater gastropods, and inclusion-bearing dispersed amber. Leaf-character derived mean annual temperature estimates (11–14.6 °C) are significantly warmer than Alaska at present and indicate warm temperate conditions at the time of deposition. Leaf-derived mean annual precipitation estimates of ∼110–160 cm/annum are comparable to those from similar-age paleofloras in Arctic Canada and indicate wetter conditions than nearly coeval paleofloras further south in the North American mid-latitudes. Leaf herbivory is rare in the Chickaloon assemblage (∼9% of leaf fragments) as compared to other, lower latitude Eocene assemblages, but exhibits four of the main leaf-damage guilds (hole feeding, margin feeding, surface feeding, and skeletonization). These data provide a rare glimpse at a high-latitude terrestrial forested ecosystem during a global hothouse climate phase and thus have implications in understanding how biogeographic patterning and ecological systems respond to non-analog, warm high-latitude environmental conditions.

DAVID SUNDERLIN, GARRISON LOOPE, NANCY E. PARKER, and CHRISTOPHER J. WILLIAMS "PALEOCLIMATIC AND PALEOECOLOGICAL IMPLICATIONS OF A PALEOCENE–EOCENE FOSSIL LEAF ASSEMBLAGE, CHICKALOON FORMATION, ALASKA," PALAIOS 26(6), 335-345, (1 June 2011). https://doi.org/10.2110/palo.2010.p10-077r
Accepted: 1 March 2011; Published: 1 June 2011
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