Mediterranean sapropels are layers with elevated organic carbon concentrations that
contrast with surrounding sediments, which are organic poor. Sapropels occur (quasi-) …

This article provides a comprehensive review of the global monsoon that encompasses
findings from studies of both modern monsoons and paleomonsoons. We introduce a …

Forty years after the image of the Mediterranean transformed into a giant salty lake was first
conceived, the fascinating history of the Messinian Salinity Crisis (MSC) still arouses great …

Ray-finned fishes make up half of all living vertebrate species. Nearly all ray-finned fishes
are teleosts, which include most commercially important fish species, several model …

We describe best-fitting angular velocities and MORVEL, a new closure-enforced set of
angular velocities for the geologically current motions of 25 tectonic plates that collectively …

The Geologic Time Scale 2012, winner of a 2012 PROSE Award Honorable Mention for Best
Multi-volume Reference in Science from the Association of American Publishers, is the …

The Messinian salinity crisis is widely regarded as one of the most dramatic episodes of
oceanic change of the past 20 or so million years (–). Earliest explanations were that …

Environmental theories of African faunal evolution state that important evolutionary changes
during the Pliocene–Pleistocene interval (the last ca. 5.3 million years) were mediated by …

Spiny-rayed fishes (Acanthomorpha) dominate modern marine habitats and account for
more than a quarter of all living vertebrate species. Previous time-calibrated phylogenies …

Abstract A Geologic Time Scale (GTS2004) is presented that integrates currently available
stratigraphic and geochronologic information. Key features of the new scale are outlined …