{"id":25721,"date":"2025-08-27T04:11:08","date_gmt":"2025-08-27T04:11:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25721\/"},"modified":"2025-08-27T04:11:08","modified_gmt":"2025-08-27T04:11:08","slug":"dinosaur-teeth-unlock-secrets-of-earths-ancient-climate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/25721\/","title":{"rendered":"Dinosaur Teeth Unlock Secrets of Earth\u2019s Ancient Climate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\t\t\"Teeth<\/a>Teeth of a Camarasaurus, found in the Morrison Formation, USA, which were also analyzed in the research. Credit: Sauriermuseum Aathal<\/p>\n

A new method allows scientists to reconstruct carbon dioxide levels and photosynthesis from fossilized tooth enamel.<\/strong><\/p>\n

A surprising new line of evidence is providing fresh insights into Earth\u2019s ancient climate. Fossilized dinosaur teeth reveal that the atmosphere during the Mesozoic era (between 252 and 66 million years ago) contained much higher levels of carbon dioxide than today. This conclusion comes from a study led by researchers at the Universities of G\u00f6ttingen, Mainz, and Bochum, who examined oxygen isotopes preserved in tooth enamel. Their approach relies on a newly developed technique that offers exciting opportunities for studying Earth\u2019s climate history.<\/p>\n

The analysis also showed that global photosynthesis, the process by which plants convert sunlight into energy, was occurring at about twice the rate seen today. According to the researchers, this surge in plant activity likely played a role in shaping the highly dynamic climate that existed during the time of the dinosaurs. The team\u2019s findings were published in the journal PNAS.<\/p>\n

To reach these results, the scientists studied dinosaur teeth unearthed in North America, Africa, and Europe from both the late Jurassic and late Cretaceous periods. Tooth enamel, one of the hardest and most resilient biological substances, preserves oxygen isotope signatures that record what dinosaurs inhaled as they breathed. Because the ratio of oxygen isotopes is influenced by atmospheric carbon dioxide and plant photosynthesis, these traces provide a valuable window into both climate conditions and vegetation during the age of the dinosaurs.<\/p>\n

\"Tooth<\/a>Tooth of a Europasaurus, a dinosaur similar to Diplodocus, in limestone, found in the Langenberg quarry in the Harz Mountains which was also analyzed in the study. Credit: Thomas T\u00fctken
\nEvidence of High CO\u2082 and Climate Spikes<\/p>\n

In the late Jurassic period, around 150 million years ago, the air contained around four times as much carbon dioxide as it did before industrialization \u2013 that is, before humans started emitting large quantities of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.<\/p>\n

And in the late Cretaceous period, around 73 to 66 million years ago, the level was three times as high as today. Individual teeth from two dinosaurs \u2013 Tyrannosaurus rex and another known as Kaatedocus siberi which is related to Diplodocus \u2013 contained a strikingly unusual composition of oxygen isotopes.<\/p>\n

\"Tooth<\/a>Tooth of a Tyrannosaurus rex \u2013 like the teeth analyzed in this study \u2013 found in Alberta, Canada. Credit:
Thomas T\u00fctken<\/p>\n

This points to CO\u2082 spikes that could be linked to major events such as volcanic eruptions \u2013 for example, the massive eruptions of the Deccan Traps in what is now India, which happened at the end of the Cretaceous period. The fact that plants on land and in water around the world were carrying out more photosynthesis at that time was probably associated with CO\u2082 levels and higher average annual temperatures.<\/p>\n

A Breakthrough for Paleoclimatology<\/p>\n

This study marks a milestone for paleoclimatology: until now, carbonates in the soil and \u201cmarine proxies\u201d were the main tools used to reconstruct the climate of the past. Marine proxies are indicators, such as fossils or chemical signatures in sediments, that help scientists understand environmental conditions in the sea in the past. However, these methods are subject to uncertainty. By analyzing oxygen isotopes in tooth fossils, the researchers have now developed the first method that focuses on vertebrates on land.<\/p>\n

\u201cOur method gives us a completely new view of the Earth\u2019s past,\u201d explains lead author Dr Dingsu Feng at the University of G\u00f6ttingen\u2019s Department of Geochemistry. \u201cIt opens up the possibility of using fossilized tooth enamel to investigate the composition of the early Earth\u2019s atmosphere and the productivity of plants at that time. This is crucial for understanding long-term climate dynamics.\u201d Dinosaurs could be the new climate scientists, according to Feng: \u201cLong ago their teeth recorded the climate for a period of over 150 million years \u2013 finally we are getting the message.\u201d<\/p>\n

Reference: \u201cMesozoic atmospheric CO2 concentrations reconstructed from dinosaur tooth enamel\u201d by Dingsu Feng, Thomas T\u00fctken, Eva Maria Griebeler, Daniel Herwartz and Andreas Pack, 4 August 2025, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
DOI: 10.1073\/pnas.2504324122<\/a><\/p>\n

The study was funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG) and by the VeWA consortium as part of the LOEWE programme of the Hessisches Ministerium f\u00fcr Wissenschaft und Forschung, Kunst und Kultur.<\/p>\n

Never miss a breakthrough: Join the SciTechDaily newsletter.<\/a><\/b><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Teeth of a Camarasaurus, found in the Morrison Formation, USA, which were also analyzed in the research. Credit:…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":25722,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[77],"tags":[21255,18,8399,19,17,21256,12151,133,21257],"class_list":{"0":"post-25721","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-science","8":"tag-dinosaurs","9":"tag-eire","10":"tag-fossils","11":"tag-ie","12":"tag-ireland","13":"tag-paleoclimatology","14":"tag-paleontology","15":"tag-science","16":"tag-university-of-gottingen"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25721","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=25721"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/25721\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25722"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=25721"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=25721"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=25721"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}