Abstract
Variations in sea-surface temperatures over the past 500,000 years are inferred from the relative abundance behaviour of two organic compounds, C37 alkenones over the upper 8 metres of a sediment core from the eastern equatorial Atlantic. This molecular record, ascribed to contributions from prymnesiophyte algae, correlates well with the variations in the δ18 signal for the calcareous skeletons of certain planktonic foraminifera, thus providing the first demonstration of a new stratigraphical technique, which may be especially valuable where methods based on carbonate δ18 fail.
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Brassell, S., Eglinton, G., Marlowe, I. et al. Molecular stratigraphy: a new tool for climatic assessment. Nature 320, 129–133 (1986). https://doi.org/10.1038/320129a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/320129a0
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