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Paleoclimate studies suggest that increased global warmth during the Eocene epoch was greatly amplified at high latitudes, a state that climate models cannot fully reproduce. However, proxy estimates of Eocene near-Antarctic sea surface temperatures (SSTs) have produced widely divergent results at similar latitudes, with SSTs above 20 degrees C in the southwest Pacific contrasting with SSTs between 5 and 15 degrees C in the South Atlantic. Validation of this zonal temperature difference has been impeded by uncertainties inherent to the individual paleotemperature proxies applied at these sites. Here, we present multiproxy data from Seymour Island, near the Antarctic Peninsula, that provides well-constrained evidence for annual SSTs of 10-17 degrees C (1 sigma SD) during the middle and late Eocene. Comparison of the same paleotemperature proxy at Seymour Island and at the East Tasman Plateau indicate the presence of a large and consistent middle-to-late Eocene SST gradient of similar to 7 degrees C between these two sites located at similar paleolatitudes. Intermediate-complexity climate model simulations suggest that enhanced oceanic heat transport in the South Pacific, driven by deep-water formation in the Ross Sea, was largely responsible for the observed SST gradient. These results indicate that very warm SSTs, in excess of 18 degrees C, did not extend uniformly across the Eocene southern high latitudes, and suggest that thermohaline circulation may partially control the distribution of high-latitude ocean temperatures in greenhouse climates. The pronounced zonal SST heterogeneity evident in the Eocene cautions against inferring past meridional temperature gradients using spatially limited data within given latitudinal bands.

Despite warm polar climates and low meridional temperature gradients, a number of different high-latitude plankton assemblages were, to varying extents, dominated by endemic species during most of the Paleogene. To better understand the evolution of Paleogene plankton endemism in the high southern latitudes, we investigate the spatiotemporal distribution of the fossil remains of dinoflagellates, i.e., organic-walled cysts (dinocysts), and their response to changes in regional sea surface temperature (SST). We show that Paleocene and early Eocene (∼65-50 Ma) Southern Ocean dinocyst assemblages were largely cosmopolitan in nature but that a distinct switch from cosmopolitan-dominated to endemic-dominated assemblages (the so-called "transantarctic flora") occurred around the early-middle Eocene boundary (∼50 Ma). The spatial distribution and relative abundance patterns of this transantarctic flora correspond well with surface water circulation patterns as reconstructed through general circulation model experiments throughout the Eocene. We quantitatively compare dinocyst assemblages with previously published TEX86-based SST reconstructions through the early and middle Eocene from a key locality in the southwest Pacific Ocean, ODP Leg 189 Site 1172 on the East Tasman Plateau. We conclude that the middle Eocene onset of the proliferation of the transantarctic flora is not linearly correlated with regional SST records and that only after the transantarctic flora became fully established later in the middle Eocene, possibly triggered by large-scale changes in surface-ocean nutrient availability, were abundances of endemic dinocysts modulated by regional SST variations. Fil: Bijl, Peter K.. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Pross, Jörg. Goethe Universitat Frankfurt; Alemania Fil: Warnaar, Jeroen. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Stickley, Catherine E.. University Of Norway; Noruega Fil: Huber, Matthew. Purdue University; Estados Unidos Fil: Guerstein, Gladys Raquel. Universidad Nacional del Sur; Argentina. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Geología. Instituto Geológico del Sur; Argentina Fil: Houben, Alexander J. P.. University of Utrecht; Países Bajos Fil: Sluijs, Appy. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Visscher, Henk. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Brinkhuis, Henk. Utrecht University; Países Bajos

The Eocene-Oligocene Transition (EOT, ~. 34. Ma) represents the culmination of Eocene cooling by the initiation of large-scale Antarctic glaciation. Recognition and correlation of the EOT in Southern Ocean sedimentary successions have been difficult as a result of the general lack of well-calibrated biostratigraphic markers. Here we describe an unusual hypnozygotic organic walled dinoflagellate cyst (dinocyst) that originated in the Southern Ocean in conjunction with the onset of major Antarctic glaciation as reflected by 'oxygen isotope event 1' (Oi-1).We restudied samples from Deep Sea Drilling Program (DSDP) Site 511 using Light Microscopy and Scanning Electron Microscopy and found that a taxon previously known as Forma T constitutes a new protoperidinioid dinocyst genus and species that we name Malvinia escutiana. Published and re-evaluated data from other Southern Ocean sites show that M. escutiana did not occur before the Oi-1 (33.7. Ma), emphasizing its potential as a useful biostratigraphic marker for this key interval in the Southern Ocean's Cenozoic climate history. Fil: Houben, Alexander J. P.. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Bijl, Peter K.. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Guerstein, Gladys Raquel. Consejo Nacional de Investigaciones Científicas y Técnicas. Centro Científico Tecnológico Conicet - Bahía Blanca. Instituto Geológico del Sur. Universidad Nacional del Sur. Departamento de Geología. Instituto Geológico del Sur; Argentina Fil: Sluijs, Appy. Utrecht University; Países Bajos Fil: Brinkhuis, Henk. Utrecht University; Países Bajos

The Dependable Warmer During the middle of the Eocene, about 40 million years ago, a transient warming event interrupted the long-term cooling trend that had been in progress for the previous 10 million years. Bijl et al. (p. 819 ; see the Perspective by Pearson ) constructed records of sea surface temperature and atmospheric CO 2 concentrations across the warming period. It appears that vast amounts of CO 2 were injected into the atmosphere, and a sea surface temperature increase of as much a 6°C accompanied the atmospheric CO 2 rise.