From greenhouse to cold house: What fossilised plants tell us about the climate millions of years ago
Lecture at the Museum of Natural History on 17 January, 6.30 pm
On Wednesday 17 January at 6.30 pm, the Museum of Natural History invites you to a lecture by and with Dr Karolin Moraweck from the Senckenberg Natural History Collections Dresden in the TIETZ event hall. The scientist will show what history fossilised leaves can tell about our past.
Admission is free.
Records of the geological past are coveted witnesses of environmental and climatic changes on our restless Earth. The remains of plants are of particular importance. Tied to their locations, they authentically reflect the prevailing conditions. If these change, there are only two options: Adaptation or extinction. The science of palaeobotany makes use of this simple and fundamental realisation in order to use plant fossils not only to record site conditions millions of years ago, but also to reconstruct climatic and ecological changes.
In her lecture "From greenhouse to cold house: What fossil plants tell us about the climate millions of years ago", Dr Karolin Moraweck explains that the leaves in particular, as the most important photosynthetic organs, are climate-sensitive indicators.
In the lignite swamps of central Germany, which formed on the edge of the Palaeo-North Sea around 66 to 23 million years ago, plant remains have been excellently preserved. Today, they are a key to understanding globally significant climate changes. While subtropical conditions still dominated Central Europe around 50 million years ago, the first blocks of ice began to form in the northern hemisphere between 45 and 35 million years ago, followed by the Antarctic ice sheet.
The Earth's last natural greenhouse climate was followed by a steady global cooling, which was reflected in the composition of the palaeo-vegetation of Central Europe. Evergreen woody plants were replaced by deciduous species. While large-scale climatic changes can be read from the composition of regional vegetation, the adaptability of individual species to changing environmental and climatic conditions often remains unclear.
Whether long-lived species have mechanisms to better adapt to changes and to persist in their habitats over millions of years is of particular interest. The quantification of climate and environmental fluctuations is therefore one of the Dresden scientist's main areas of research.
The lecture will provide an insight into the range of methods used in palaeobotanical research and take the audience on an exciting journey into the past, when Central Germany's vegetation and climate resembled that of Southeast Asia before the tree species that are indigenous today became established. What chance they have in the future will be discussed.