Fossil beetle assemblages as evidence for sudden and intense climatic changes in the British Isles during the last 45 000 years.

Abstract

Since coleoptera are common as fossils and they can be identified to the species level, large assemblages can be obtained from single localities representing short time intervals. By using a computer-based program the overlap of species ranges can be used to reconstruct past thermal environmental changes in terms of mean July temperatures and mean January temperatures which can then be plotted against radiocarbon time. It can be shown that summer temperatures in central Britain, at about 13 000 BP, rose suddenly by 7oC and that winter temperatures may have risen by 20oC at the same time. A similar event occurred at about 10 000 BP. This reconstruction of climatic changes differs considerably from the traditional view of European climatic changes towards the close of the last glacial period. - from Author