• A study aiming to infer atmospheric oxygen concentrations over the past 1.5 billion years is published by Krause
et al. (2022), who interpret their findings as indicating that there was no simple unidirectional rise in atmospheric oxygen levels during the
Neoproterozoic and the first animals evolved against a backdrop of extreme O2 variability, with atmospheric O2 levels oscillating between ~1 and ~50% of the present atmospheric level during the Neoproterozoic. • A study on the diagnostic characteristics of the Chengjiang Biota deposit and on its sedimentary environment is published by Saleh
et al. (2022). • Zhao
et al. (2022) use a continuous astronomical signal detected as geochemical variations in the late Cambrian
Alum Shale Formation (Sweden) to establish a 16-million-years-long astronomical time scale, providing detailed temporal constraints on the paleoenvironmental and biological changes during the late Cambrian. • Evidence of rapid marine oxygen fluctuations in the Late Ordovician oceans, with strong temporal link to mass extinction pulses at the end of the Ordovician, is presented by Kozik
et al. (2022). • Jing
et al. (2022) present evidence of the occurrence of a
true polar wander event 450–440 million years ago, and interpret this event as explaining the timing and migration of glacial centers across
Gondwana, as well as the protracted end-Ordovician mass extinction. • Evidence indicating that the evolution of vascular plants and the expansion of terrestrial vegetation initiated at the end of the
Llandovery Epoch enhanced the complexity of weathering and sedimentary systems and altered the composition of continental crust is presented by Spencer
et al. (2022). • A study on the lithology and stratigraphy of the
Famennian-aged Lebedjan Formation (
Lipetsk Oblast, Russia), on the composition of the Lebedjan biota and on its paleoenvironment, is published by Bicknell & Naugolnykh (2022). • A study on the development of the mid-late
Cisuralian environments and ecosystems in central
Pangaea, based on data from the late Cisuralian fossil assemblage of the Southern Alps and its comparison with other Cisuralian assemblages, is published by Marchetti
et al. (2022). • A study on the age of the vertebrate-bearing Permian deposits of the
Chickasha Formation (
Oklahoma, United States) and
San Angelo Formation (
Texas, United States) is published by
Laurin & Hook (2022). • The first shallow-marine
methane seeps reported from the Australian Upper Paleozoic, as well as a new seep biota, are described from the
Sakmarian lower Holmwood Shale in the Irwin Basin by Haig
et al. (2022). • Revision of the biostratigraphy of the Permian to Triassic Beaufort Group (
Karoo Supergroup; South Africa) is published by Viglietti
et al. (2022). • A study on the timeline and character of environmental changes in the Bowen Basin (Queensland, Australia) leading up to the Permian–Triassic extinction event is published by Fielding
et al. (2022). • A study investigating fossilised shells of gastropods and bivalves from the Permian–Triassic succession exposed at Lusitaniadalen (
Svalbard, Norway) for dissolution and repair marks, and aiming to determine whether a worldwide
ocean acidification event occurred during the Permian–Triassic transition, is published by Foster
et al. (2022). • A study on changes of lithium and strontium isotope composition of seawater in the Permian to Early Triassic is published by Cao
et al. (2022), who report evidence of a sharp decrease of the lithium isotope composition of seawater in the Late Permian and of persistence of low seawater lithium isotope values throughout the Early Triassic, interpreted by the authors as likely caused by increased
reverse weathering rates, potentially explaining the failure of chemical
weathering to draw down atmospheric CO2 levels during the Early Triassic. • A continuous record of atmospheric CO2 during the Permian-Triassic transition from the Shangsi section (China) is presente by Shen
et al. (2022), who also study changes of marine phytoplankton community structure across this interval, and interpret their findings as indicating that while the first extinction pulse of the Permian–Triassic extinction event in the latest Permian appears to have been associated with intense initial weathering that briefly suppressed the atmospheric CO2, it was followed by a rapid rise to a prolonged high atmospheric CO2, and the second extinction pulse in the Early Triassic was sustained by food web collapse driven by the expansion of bacterial production in response to
oligotrophic conditions. • Evidence from the Bristol Channel Basin (United Kingdom), indicating that intensive
euxinia and acidification driven by
Central Atlantic magmatic province activity formed a two-pronged kill mechanism at the
end-Triassic mass extinction, is presented by Fox
et al. (2022). • Onoue
et al. (2022) present a continental weathering record in the northwestern
Tethys during the end-Triassic mass extinction event, inferred from strontium, carbon and oxygen isotope data from carbonate–clastic deposits in the Kardolína section (Slovakia), and interpret their findings as indicating that the marine environment in the Late Triassic European basins may have developed an
oxygen minimum zone due to the increase in continental weathering during the latest
Rhaetian, which might have had an important role in the marine end-Triassic extinction. • Review of the late Early Jurassic Karoo biota from southern Africa and its geological framework is published by Bordy
et al. (2022). • A study on the age of the Early Cretaceous fossil assemblage from the Moqi fossil bed (China) is published by Yu
et al. (2022). • Rodríguez-López
et al. (2022) report evidence from the Lower Cretaceous Luohe Formation (Ordos Basin, China) interpreted as indicative of the occurrence of permafrost in a plateau desert during the Cretaceous supergreenhouse, analogous to modern permafrost in the Western Himalayas. • Beveridge
et al. (2022) present new radioisotopic ages for the
Campanian Wahweap Formation (
Utah, United States), a lithostratigraphic revision and a review of the spatio-temporal distribution of vertebrate fossils from this formation, including revised ages for early
tyrannosaurid,
hadrosaurid and
centrosaurine dinosaurs. • A set of geochronologic data from the Campanian geological formations of North America's Western Interior Basin is presented by Ramezani
et al. (2022), who consider their findings to be indicative of significant age overlap between the main fossil-bearing intervals of the Kaiparowits, Judith River, Two Medicine and Dinosaur Park formations, and interpret their findings as refuting inferences that the proposed latitudinal provinciality of the Campanian dinosaur taxa is only an artefact of age misinterpretation. • A study on the age of the Cape Lamb Member of the
Snow Hill Island Formation and of the overlying Sandwich Bluff Member of the
López de Bertodano Formation (
Vega Island, Antarctica) is published by Roberts
et al. (2022), who interpret their findings as indicating that Mesozoic marine vertebrates and non-avian dinosaurs persisted in Antarctica up to the terminal Cretaceous. • Nicholson
et al. (2022) present evidence of a previously unidentified probable impact crater (
Nadir crater) on the southwest Guinea Terrace (offshore West Africa,
exclusive economic zone of Guinea), interpreted as formed at or near the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary and approximately the same age as the Chicxulub impact crater, and possibly formed by an impactor which broke off from the larger Chicxulub asteroid or was a part of a longer-lived impact cluster. • A study on the bone apposition in three paddlefish dentaries and three sturgeon pectoral fin spines from the
Tanis site (
North Dakota, United States), aiming to pinpoint the season in which bone apposition terminated, is published by During
et al. (2022), who interpret their findings as indicating that the impact that caused the
Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event took place during boreal spring. • Review of the environmental consequences of the Chicxulub impact at the Cretaceous–Paleogene boundary is published by Morgan
et al. (2022). • Auderset
et al. (2022) present evidence from foraminifera-bound nitrogen isotopes interpreted as indicating that during the Early Eocene Climatic Optimum and Middle Miocene Climatic Optimum the ocean's oxygen-deficient zones contracted rather than expanded. • Brachert
et al. (2022) present oxygen and carbon isotope time series from reef corals from the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum (~40 million years ago) from the sands of Auvers (France), who interpret their findings as providing evidence of
zooxanthellate symbiosis in tropical reef corals of the Paleogene, as well as providing evidence of subdued
sea surface temperature seasonality of 7° to 8 °C during the Middle Eocene Climatic Optimum. • Evidence of preservation of
porphyrins in a gar belonging to the genus
Atractosteus from the
Messel pit (Germany), possibly representing diagenetically altered
heme originating from the fossil, is presented by Siljeström, Neubeck & Steele (2022). • A study on the early Oligocene-middle Miocene wildfire history of the northern Tibetan Plateau and on the relationship between wildfire frequencies and temperature changes, based on data from sedimentary records of the microcharcoals from the Qaidam Basin, is published by Miao
et al. (2022). • New information of the age, stratigraphy, biota and palaeoenvironment of the Miocene Els Casots site (Vallès-Penedès Basin; Catalonia, Spain) is presented by Casanovas-Vilar
et al. (2022). • A study aiming to reconstruct the middle Miocene habitats on the northern North American Great Plains, as indicated by stable carbon isotope data from a wide variety of fossil ungulates from four local faunas in
Nebraska of late
Barstovian age, is published by Nguy & Secord (2022). • Miao
et al. (2022) present evidence from pollen records from the northern Tibet plateau, interpreted as indicating that the plateau obtained its current elevation approximately 10 million years ago. • A study on the environmental variability in Africa during the
Pliocene and
Pleistocene, and on the impact of this environmental variability on the evolution of African mammals, is published by Cohen
et al. (2022). • A study on the habitat types at the Woranso-Mille site (Ethiopia) during the Pliocene, and on factors which allowed the coexistence of more than one species of
Australopithecus at the site, is published by Denise Su &
Yohannes Haile-Selassie (2022). • A study on the environmental context of hominin evolution in the Plio-Pleistocene of Africa, as indicated by oxygen and carbon enamel isotope data from carnivorans from the Omo Group of the
Turkana Basin (Kenya), is published by Hopley
et al. (2022). • Zachariasse & Lourens (2022) interpret the sediments from
Crete (Greece) preserving the
Trachilos footprints as late Pliocene in age, thus dating to the time when Crete was separated from mainland Greece and Turkey by stretches of deep water which were at least 100 km wide, and interpret this finding as indicating that the putative footprints were highly unlikely to be produced by hominins, and casting doubts on whether they were footprints at all. • A study on the age of the Xiashagou Fauna from the
Nihewan Basin in northern China is published by Tu
et al. (2022), who interpret the age of this fauna as consistent with the ages of the Senèze and Olivola Faunas in Europe, and possibly indicative of the existence of an ecological corridor for faunal dispersals across northern Eurasia during the early Pleistocene. • Evidence of the association of burnt tusk and burnt lithics within a clearly defined archaeological horizon at the
Lower Paleolithic site of Evron Quarry (Israel), dated between 1.0 and 0.8 Mya and lacking visual signatures for fire, is presented by Stepka
et al. (2022). • A study on the relative importance of six drivers of vegetation change (moisture availability, fire activity, mammalian herbivore density, temperature, temperature seasonality, CO2) in western Africa over the past ~500,000 years, comparing past environmental change data from
Lake Bosumtwi (Ghana) with global data, is published by Gosling
et al. (2022), who interpret their findings as indicating that shifts in atmospheric CO2 concentrations did not drive changes in woody cover in the tropics at the millennial scale. • A study aiming to reconstruct the history of sea level at the Bering Strait since 46,000 years ago is published by Farmer
et al. (2022), who find that the Bering Strait was open from at least 46,000 until 35,700 years ago, dating the last formation of the land bridge to within 10,000 years of the Last Glacial Maximum. •
Woolly mammoth,
steppe bison, caballine horse and
willow ptarmigan mitochondrial genomes are reconstructed from samples of
permafrost silts from central
Yukon (Canada) spanning the last 30,000 years by Murchie
et al. (2022). • A study on the timing of the opening of the
ice-free corridor along the eastern front of the Rocky Mountains in the late Pleistocene, aiming to determine whether this corridor was available for the first
peopling of the Americas after the Last Glacial Maximum, is published by Clark
et al. (2022). • Wiemann &
Briggs (2022) demonstrated the presence of different biological signals in
Raman and
Fourier-transform infrared spectroscopy data of a diversity of
carbonaceous animal fossils through independent laboratory confirmation (2022). • A study on the impact of food hardness and size on the morphology of the
mandible of extant pigs, and on its implications for the use of mandibular morphology as a proxy in paleodietary reconstructions, is published by Neaux
et al. (2022). • Amano
et al. (2022) present a method to mathematically isolate and selectively eliminate the
taphonomic deformation of a fossil skull for restoration of its original appearance, and apply this method to reconstruction of a skull of
Mesopithecus from the late Miocene of Greece. • Demuth
et al. (2022) present a new method for volumetric three-dimensional reconstructions of musculature in extant and extinct taxa, and apply this method to reconstruction of the hindlimb musculature of
Euparkeria capensis. • Lallensack & Falkingham (2022) present a new method that allows for estimating limb phase based on variation patterns in long trackways, and use this method to estimate limb phases of giant wide-gauged sauropod dinosaurs that produced three long trackways from the
Albian De Queen Formation (
Arkansas, United States). • Gates
et al. (2022) present new method that allows for differentiation of various geographic distributional hypotheses using information from the fossil record about entire communities, apply this method to datasets of pollen and
ceratopsid dinosaurs from the Late Cretaceous Western Interior Basin of North America, and interpret their findings as indicative of the presence of two plant communities with a transition zone of unknown width between them, while finding no evidence of a biogeographical pattern in the distribution of ceratopsids. • Survey of examples of scientific practices stemming from colonialism, focusing on the studies of fossils from Brazil (Araripe Basin) and Mexico (Sabinas, La Popa and Parras basins) published during 1990–2021, is published by Cisneros
et al. (2022), who propose recommendations to scientists, journals, museums, research institutions and government and funding agencies to overcome these practices. • A study on the history and legality of Myanmar amber use in the literature, providing evidence of links between research interest in Myanmar amber and major political, legal and economic changes, and indicating that the vast majority of publications on this amber do not include researchers from Myanmar as co-authors, is published by Dunne
et al. (2022). • Stewens, Raja & Dunne (2022) review the history of fossil removal under colonial rule, and evaluate potential avenues for their return under public international law.
Paleoclimate • Evidence indicating that the global warming which led to the end-Permian mass extinction was initiated by emissions of large quantities of high temperature methane generated from oils from a
large igneous province is presented by Chen
et al. (2022). • Evidence oxygen isotope ratios from
Changhsingian ostracods of north-western Iran, interpreted as indicative of gradual rise of ambient seawater temperature beginning at least 300,000 years prior to the main extinction event of the end-Permian mass extinction, is presented by Gliwa
et al. (2022). • Joachimski
et al. (2022) reconstruct late Permian to Middle Triassic atmospheric CO2 record, and interpret their findings as indicative of an approximate fold increase in
pCO2 from the latest Permian to Early Triassic. • A study on the climate response to orbital variations in a Late Triassic midlatitude temperate setting in
Jameson Land (Greenland) and the tropical low paleolatitude setting of the
Newark Basin is published by Mau, Kent & Clemmensen (2022). •
Olsen et al. (2022) present evidence from the Late Triassic and Early Jurassic strata of the Junggar Basin (northwest China) indicating that, despite extraordinary high partial pressure of CO2, freezing winter temperatures characterized high
Pangaean latitudes during the early
Mesozoic. • Jones, Petersen & Curley (2022) report
carbonate clumped isotope paleotemperatures of the mid-Cretaceous thermal maximum measured from Cenomanian oyster fossils of the
Western Interior Seaway, and interpret their findings as indicative of extreme mid-latitude warmth in North America. • A study on the latitudinal temperature gradient over the last 95 million years, as indicated by data from planktonic foraminifera
δ18O, is published by Gaskell
et al. (2022). • A study on the sulfur isotope anomalies in the Cretaceous-Paleogene boundary impact debris and overlying sediments is published by Junium
et al. (2022), who interpret their findings as evidence of injection of massive amounts of sulfur into the stratosphere in the aftermath of the
Chicxulub impact, and evidence of the role of the sulfur-bearing gases in driving a postimpact winter. • A study on changes of deep ocean temperature across the past 65 million years, inferred from clumped isotope thermometry, is published by Meckler
et al. (2022), whose temperature estimates from the deep Atlantic Ocean are overall much warmer compared with oxygen isotope–based reconstructions. • A study on
climate changes in central China from the late Palaeocene to early Eocene, inferred from palynological assemblages in the Tantou Basin (Henan, China), is published by Su
et al. (2022), who interpret their findings as indicative of a sudden climate change in the early Eocene which might signal the emergence of the
East Asian Monsoon. • Agterhuis
et al. (2022) report deep-sea temperature estimates across the
Eocene Thermal Maximum 2 and the
hyperthermal event that occurred approximately 2 million years after the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (approximately 54 million years ago). • A study on the climatic impact of oceanic gateway changes at the Eocene–Oligocene Transition is published by Straume
et al. (2022). • A study on the ocean crustal production (a proxy for tectonic degassing of carbon) since the Miocene is published by
Herbert et al. (2022), who argue that changes in tectonic degassing of carbon can account for the majority of long-term ice sheet and global temperature evolution throughout the past 20 million years. • A study on the impact of climate variability on the evolution of early African
Homo, Eurasian
Homo erectus,
Homo heidelbergensis, Neanderthals and modern humans is published by Timmermann
et al. (2022). • Foerster
et al. (2022) present a 620,000-year environmental record from Chew Bahir (Ethiopia), providing evidence of three distinct phases of climate variability in eastern Africa which coincided with shifts in hominin evolution and dispersal. • Evidence of five phases of lake development at
Tayma (Saudi Arabia) is presented by Neugebauer
et al. (2022), who interpret their findings as indicative of unexpectedly short duration (dating from 8800 to 7900 years before present) of the Holocene Humid Period in Northern Arabia. ==References==