Fifty-five million years ago, Earth’s thermostat shot up—and life dramatically changed. Here’s what history can teach us about our modern temperature surge.
Paleontologists call this hot spot the Paleocene-Eocene Thermal Maximum . It’s a time when subtropical forests spread over the continents and new animals got to stake their claims on the planet, all thanks to an atmosphere and oceans in turmoil. This part of the fossil record is a remnant of the past, but it may also be a preview ofThe PETM was a good time to be a bug. Warmth spurred the spread of dry tropical forests north, making ancient Wyoming look more like modern Texas.
Because many insects are ectothermic , the spike opened the gates for a flood of tiny critters to move in.The evidence is in fossil leaves found in rocks dated to the period. A sample of more than 5,000 petrified bits of flora from before, during, and after the PETM shows an uptick in the amount and diversity of insect damage. In one study of Wyoming’s Bighorn Basin, more than half the fossil leaves from the PETM had been damaged by bugs—than before or after.
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