Articles for tag: Climate Clues, Earth History, fossil reefs, Geological Record, Paleo climate

an underwater view of corals and sponges in the ocean

How Ancient Coral Reefs Record Earth’s Climate Millions of Years Ago

Suhail Ahmed

Wave-battered and sunlit, ancient coral reefs look like ruins – but they’re anything but silent. Locked inside their stone-white skeletons are timelines of temperature swings, ocean chemistry jolts, and sea-level pulses that outlast empires. The mystery is simple yet profound: how do we reconstruct climates that no instrument ever measured? The answer lives in the ...

Paleoerosion-planed off fossil coral in fossiliferous limestone

Prehistoric Coral Reefs Reveal What Centuries of Fishing Have Cost Us

April Joy Jovita

A groundbreaking study of 7,000-year-old fossilized coral reefs has revealed how centuries of humans have dramatically altered Caribbean reef ecosystems. Published in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the research compares ancient reef communities with modern ones, uncovering a cascade of ecological changes triggered by the loss of top predators. A Window Into Prehuman ...