Textbook Marine Pollution and Climate Change 1St Edition Andres Hugo Arias Ebook All Chapter PDF

Marine Pollution and Climate Change
1st Edition Andrés Hugo Arias

Visit to download the full and correct content document:
https://textbookfull.com/product/marine-pollution-and-climate-change-1st-edition-andr
es-hugo-arias/
More products digital (pdf, epub, mobi) instant
download maybe you interests ...
Coastal and Deep Ocean Pollution 1st Edition Andres

Hugo Arias (Editor)
https://textbookfull.com/product/coastal-and-deep-ocean-
pollution-1st-edition-andres-hugo-arias-editor/
Marine geochemistry : ocean circulation, carbon cycle

and climate change 1st Edition Matthieu Roy-Barman
https://textbookfull.com/product/marine-geochemistry-ocean-
circulation-carbon-cycle-and-climate-change-1st-edition-matthieu-
roy-barman/
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution

to Climate Change John H. Seinfeld
https://textbookfull.com/product/atmospheric-chemistry-and-
physics-from-air-pollution-to-climate-change-john-h-seinfeld/
Theology and Climate Change 1st Edition Tyson
https://textbookfull.com/product/theology-and-climate-change-1st-
edition-tyson/
Marine Mammal Welfare Human Induced Change in the
Marine Environment and its Impacts on Marine Mammal
Welfare 1st Edition Andy Butterworth (Eds.)
https://textbookfull.com/product/marine-mammal-welfare-human-
induced-change-in-the-marine-environment-and-its-impacts-on-
marine-mammal-welfare-1st-edition-andy-butterworth-eds/
Renewable Energy and Climate Change Quaschning
https://textbookfull.com/product/renewable-energy-and-climate-
change-quaschning/
Climate Change and Public Health 1st Edition Barry Levy
https://textbookfull.com/product/climate-change-and-public-
health-1st-edition-barry-levy/
Climate Change and Extreme Events 1st Edition Ali Fares
https://textbookfull.com/product/climate-change-and-extreme-
events-1st-edition-ali-fares/
Handbook of Climate Change Communication: Vol. 2:

Practice of Climate Change Communication 1st Edition
Walter Leal Filho
https://textbookfull.com/product/handbook-of-climate-change-
communication-vol-2-practice-of-climate-change-communication-1st-
edition-walter-leal-filho/
Marine Pollution and
Climate Change
Marine Pollution and
Climate Change
Editors
Andrés Hugo Arias
Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía, CCT-CONICET
Universidad Nacional del Sur, Departamento de Química, Area III
Bahía Blanca
Argentina
and
Jorge Eduardo Marcovecchio
Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía, CCT-CONICET
Universidad FASTA, Mar del Plata, Argentina
Universidad Tecnologica Nacional (TN - BHI)
Bahia Blanca
Argentina
p,
p,
A SCIENCE PUBLISHERS BOOK
A SCIENCE PUBLISHERS BOOK
Cover illustration: Reproduced by kind courtesy of the editors of the book, Dr. Andrés Hugo Arias and Jorge
Eduardo Marcovecchio. The photo is an illustration of Buenos Aires harbor from the sea (Argentina).
CRC Press
Taylor & Francis Group
6000 Broken Sound Parkway NW, Suite 300
Boca Raton, FL 33487-2742
© 2018
2017 by Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
CRC Press is an imprint of Taylor & Francis Group, an Informa business
No claim to original U.S. Government works
Printed on acid-free paper

Version Date: 20170703
20170119
International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4987-4799-8

978-1-4822-9943-4 (Hardback)
This book contains information obtained from authentic and highly regarded sources. Reasonable efforts have been
made to publish reliable data and information, but the author and publisher cannot assume responsibility for the
validity of all materials or the consequences of their use. The authors and publishers have attempted to trace the
copyright holders of all material reproduced in this publication and apologize to copyright holders if permission to
publish in this form has not been obtained. If any copyright material has not been acknowledged please write and let
us know so we may rectify in any future reprint.
Except as permitted under U.S. Copyright Law, no part of this book may be reprinted, reproduced, transmitted,
or utilized in any form by any electronic, mechanical, or other means, now known or hereafter invented, includ-
ing photocopying, microfilming, and recording, or in any information storage or retrieval system, without written
permission from the publishers.
For permission to photocopy or use material electronically from this work, please access www.copyright.com
(http://www.copyright.com/) or contact the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc. (CCC), 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers,
MA 01923, 978-750-8400. CCC is a not-for-profit organization that provides licenses and registration for a variety
of users. For organizations that have been granted a photocopy license by the CCC, a separate system of payment
has been arranged.
Trademark Notice: Product or corporate names may be trademarks or registered trademarks, and are used only for
identification and explanation without intent to infringe.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Arias, Andrâes Hugo, editor. | Marcovecchio, Jorge Eduardo, editor.

Title: Marine pollution and climate change / editors Andrâes Hugo Arias and
Jorge Eduardo Marcovecchio.
Description: Boca Raton, FL : CRC Press, 2017. | Includes bibliographical
references and index.
Identifiers: LCCN 2017018990| ISBN 9781482299434 (hardback : alk. paper) |
ISBN 9781482299441 (e-book)
Subjects: LCSH: Marine pollution. | Ocean-atmosphere interaction. | Marine
ecology. | Climatic changes.
Classification: LCC GC1085 .M298 2017 | DDC 363.739/4--dc23
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2017018990
Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

http://www.taylorandfrancis.com
and the CRC Press Web site at

http://www.crcpress.com
Preface
As stated by the IPCC, human influence on the climate system is clear,

and recent anthropogenic emissions of greenhouse gases are the highest
in history. The atmosphere and oceans have warmed, the amounts of snow
and ice have diminished, and sea levels have risen. The same sources of
greenhouse gases have also generated a variety of pollutants which after
releasing and circulating in the air, water streams, soils and organisms
eventually end up in the oceans. These concomitant pollutants are driving
rapid changes such as decline in sea ice, receding of glaciers and permafrost,
increased snow melt and runoff, shifted ranges for plants and animals,
changes in populations, timing of many life-cycle events—such as blooms
and migration, decoupling of species interactions, damages due to droughts
and floods, etc. This book aims to cover the main groups of pollutants
impacting the oceans and their effects in the light of the greenhouse gases
induced changes.
Marine Pollution and Climate Change presents a comprehensive analysis
of marine pollution including contributions from an impressive group of
international oceanographers.
The book begins with a look at the state of oceans as they were earlier:
what were the environmental and oceanographic conditions of the primitive
oceans and what are the main differences/similarities with the modern
ocean? Chapter 2 delves into the South Atlantic circulation, throwing light
on “El niño” and “La niña” interactions. Chapter 3 tackles the first big
family of ocean pollutants: hydrocarbons and greenhouse emissions. In
this chapter, there is a review on the state and consequences of the present
main energy paradigm: the petroleum combustion. Chapter 4 explores the
interaction between the continents and the ocean harbors processes that
originate the flux of metals, energy and organisms across those interfaces.
Chapter 5 covers the general aspects and features of emerging pollutants
in the global change scenario, highlighting the strong need of sustainable
developments as the primary goal for reaching healthy ecosystems and
environments. Chapter 6 addresses the issue of marine debris: man-made
items of debris are now found in marine habitats throughout the world,
from the poles to the equator, from shorelines and estuaries to remote areas
of the high seas, and from the sea surface to the ocean floor. Chapter 7
vi Marine Pollution and Climate Change
combines the study of two ocean hazards: biological pollution and climate
change. As the global ship networking is expected to increase in the future, a
reduction in natural barriers for the dispersal of aquatic species is expected.
This gets worse in the framework of global climate change. Chapter 8
gives to the readers an outstanding view of high-seas fisheries (demersal
fishes), covering historical and present trends, vulnerability and actual
threats posed by climate change to this activity. Chapter 9 innovatively
studies the scarcely covered issue of the Antarctic sea’s pollution and the
incoming climate changes, giving an updated and accurate overview about
climate system, hydrocarbons, metals, sewage and occurrence of persistent
organic pollutants in the area. Finally, Chapter 10 examines, international
laws pertaining to marine pollution and changes in the oceans and gives a
precise overview of the protected and unprotected boundaries of the ocean.
The preparation of this book was significantly facilitated by the
collaborative efforts of each of the authors. We are indebted to them, main
players in the realization of this book, and the many other colleagues who
provided valuable suggestions and support during the entire process
of development of the book. An acknowledgement is also given to the
main editorial board and all the editorial staff who provided us with the
confidence and help to accomplish this project which started in late 2014.
Last but not least, the editors and everyone close to Dr. Peter Menke-
Glückert wish to dedicate this book to him in memoriam. Peter suddenly
passed away during preparation of the first version of Chapter 5 in
September 2016. Peter was a totally exceptional person with enormous
knowledge paired with an excellent education, rational intelligence and
emphatic and human breakthroughs. From scientific, political as well as
human point of view, he was one of the most influential person in Germany,
Europe and worldwide. For instance, he developed under the leadership of
the German former Minister of Foreign Affairs, Hans Dietrich Genscher, the
Green and Sustainable developments in the 60s, 70s, 80s and 90s of the past
century. In addition, Peter was one of the front men of the Liberal Party in
Germany (FDP). To him, our most heartfelt remembrance.
October 2016 Editors

Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO), CONICET
Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS)
Argentina
Contents
Preface v
1. Ancient vs. Modern Oceans: Perspectives in a Climate 1
Change Scenario
Jorge E. Marcovecchio, Silvia G. De Marco and Walter D. Melo
2. South Atlantic Circulation and Variability from a Data 39
Assimilating Model
Elbio D. Palma and Ricardo P. Matano
3. The Issue of Fossil Fuels at the Ocean: Emissions to the 66
Sea and Contribution to Global CO2
A.V. Botello, G. Ponce-Velez, L.A. Soto and S.F. Villanueva
4. Continent Derived Metal Pollution Through Time: 99
Challenges of the Global Ocean
Luiz Drude de Lacerda and Jorge Eduardo Marcovecchio
5. Emerging Pollutants in the Global Change Scenario 118
Bernd Markert, Stefan Fränzle, Simone Wünschmann and
Peter Menke-Glückert
6. Marine Debris: Problems and Solutions of the 136
Changing Ocean
H.B. Jayasiri
7. Global Shipping, Ballast Water and Invasive Species 166
Sami Souissi, Olivier Glippa and Hans-Uwe Dahms
8. High Seas Deep-Sea Fisheries under the Global 180
Changing Trends
Gui Manuel Machado Menezes and Eva Giacomello
viii Marine Pollution and Climate Change
9. Globalization of the Antarctic seas: Pollution and 237

Climate Change Perspectives
Rosalinda Carmela Montone, César de Castro Martins,
Marcos Henrique Maruch Tonelli, Tailisi Hoppe Trevizani,
Marcia Caruso Bícego, Rubens Cesar Lopes Figueira,
Ilana Elazari Klein Coaracy Wainer and Jorge E. Marcovecchio
10. International Regulatory Responses to Global Challenges 279
in Marine Pollution and Climate Change
Yubing Shi and Dazhen Zhang
Index 323
1
Ancient vs. Modern Oceans
Perspectives in a Climate Change Scenario
Jorge E. Marcovecchio,1,2,3,* Silvia G. De Marco4,2
and Walter D. Melo1,5
Introduction
The history, origin and environmental properties and characteristics of the
Oceans, not only the present but also the primitive ones, are an excellent
framework which allows to re-build old stages of our planet, as well as the
processes which have governed changes between each of them. This step
is quite significant considering the Earth is continuously evolving, and
the historical sightseeing could be a nice starting point to understand the
future of our planet.
1
Instituto Argentino de Oceanografía (IADO–CONICET/UNS), Florida 7000, Edificio E-1,
8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
2
Facultad de Ingeniería, Universidad FASTA. Gascón 3145, 7600 Mar del Plata, Argentina.
3
Facultad Regional Bahía Blanca, Universidad Tecnológica Nacional (UTN-BHI), 11 de Abril
461, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
4
Facultad de Ciencias Exactas y Naturales, Universidad Nacional de Mar del Plata (UNMdP),
Dean Funes 3350, 3º piso, 7600 Mar del Plata, Argentina.
E-mail: [email protected]
5
Departamento de Geografía y Turismo, Universidad Nacional del Sur (UNS), 12 de Octubre
1198, 4to piso, 8000 Bahía Blanca, Argentina.
E-mail: [email protected]
* Corresponding author: [email protected]
2 Marine Pollution and Climate Change
The role of the oceans in the present day

The Ocean has historically been recognized as an essential regulator of
climate in our planet, playing a significant role in different processes like
generation of wind fields and storms, changes in biogeochemical balances,
global circulation and heat fluxes (Ganachaud and Wunsch 2000). It is well
known that the exchange of latent heat, sensible heat and radiative fluxes
between the ocean and the atmosphere represents a significant source for
Ocean/Atmosphere interactions, including processes of warming due
to increases within atmospheric CO2 concentration (or other greenhouse
causing gases) (Ramanathan 1981).
The Oceans contains about fifty times more carbon than the atmosphere;
this fact has been extensively explained through the concept of biological
pump, which is a mechanism involving either physical or biological processes
directed to produce an oceanic carbon sink, balancing CO2 concentration
within the atmosphere (Hernández-León et al. 2010; Lam et al. 2011; Karl
et al. 2012). The decrease of pH in seawater responding to absorption of
anthropogenic CO2 has been defined as ocean acidification (i.e., Doney et
al. 2004; 2007), and can significantly impact marine ecosystems (Bates and
Peters 2007).
Changes in the ocean conditions can directly affect the climate system,
not only due to its role on the energy fluxes of the planet, but also by
regulating the running and performance of numerous biogeochemical
cycles (Rahmstorf 2002). In this sense, the studies by Nguyen et al. (1983)
describing the role of the ocean on the global sulfur cycle, or those by Mason
and Sheu (2002) concerning the significance of the ocean within the global
mercury cycle deserve to be highlighted.
Another characteristic of the oceans that deserves to be remarked
is the redox state, which plays a significant role in the regulation of the
biological activity at the global scale (Fike 2010). This concept was largely
shared by different authors. Canfield et al. (2010) presented an extended
overview on the status and evolutionary perspectives of nitrogen cycle in
the Earth, pointing out the redox state as one of the most important factors
conditioning biological production. In the same viewpoint Rutherford et
al. (2012) noted that a redox adequate condition is essential for profitable
biological production. Also Raymont (2014) analyzed the conditions which
govern the biological production within the marine environment, focusing
on that of phytoplankton, and pointing out the significance of the redox
state to get a successful season.
One of the topics of greatest concern is the role of the oceans as
ecosystem services providers (Doney et al. 2004) with their ability to store
inorganic carbon and their activity governing the distribution of major
biogeochemical tracers (i.e., oxygen, nutrients, pollutants). Cooley et al.
(2009) proposed that ocean acidification process could modify the operation
Ancient vs. Modern Oceans: Perspectives in a Climate Change Scenario 3
of the marine ecosystem through its effect on all type of ecosystem service
categories (i.e., provisioning, regulation, culture and support, according to
Millennium Ecosystem Assessment Board 2005). In addition, Constanza et
al. (1997) overviewed the importance of the mentioned processes in terms
of value of the World’s ecosystem services and natural capital. Halpern et
al. (2008) pointed out that Humans depend on ocean ecosystems not only
in terms of valuable goods but also services; nevertheless, human use
has also altered the oceans through direct and indirect means, producing
significant and severe damage. Moreover, Barbier et al. (2011) explained
that deterioration of ocean ecosystem services due to human activities is
in the range of 29–50% worldwide. Marine ecosystems provide numerous
services, including food production, wastes discharge and degradation,
protection of shorelines against storms, climate and atmosphere dynamics
regulation, tourism development, among others (Palumbi et al. 2009).
However, the knowledge on the whole global ocean is uncomplete
and remains to be fully considered. Certain parts of present day oceans
have still not been adequately studied, and among them the submarine
hydrothermal solutions (strongly linked to mid-ocean ridge hot springs)
are a good example of this lack of knowledge (Bowers et al. 1985; Mottl et
al. 2011). This is a quite remarkable point considering these environments
presumably show similar conditions as those from the primitive ocean’s
ones.
A couple of interesting questions to put on the discussion table are:
(i) had the ocean always played these environmental roles all along the
history of the planet?...(ii) What were the environmental and oceanographic
conditions of the primitive oceans?...(iii) Which are the main differences
and similarities between ancient and modern-day oceans?...
How ancient are the “Ancient Oceans”…???

The original location, distribution and dynamics of primitive oceans within
early stages of Earth planet were quite different from those we usually
recognize at present times, and a slow but steady evolution has come out
along different eons and eras.
Each of them had got their own environmental characteristics and
chemical properties, as will be summarily exposed in the next paragraphs.
These conditions have been closely linked with different geological
processes which have generated the corresponding structural stages of
our planet, including continental masses, drifting, tectonic processes, etc.
Essential parameters for understanding the physics and chemistry of the
present and past oceans exist, i.e., the drainage pattern of the continents,
cycles of fresh and hypersaline waters in the oceans, opening and closure
of important pathways, and formation and melting of ice sheets. All these
parameters influence the climate, the sea-ice distribution, the vertical

circulation of the oceans, and the distribution of many elements within
their sediments.
First Scenario: The Archaean Ocean
During the first stages of Earth planet consolidation (i.e., Precambrian)

the first recorded ocean had appeared, and constitutes the first antecedent
within this topic (Fig. 1.1).
In 1968 T.F.W. Barth studies eventually became a classic for researchers
dealing with oceanography and geochemistry. In this study the author
settled a strong concept directed to understand the possible origin of the
ocean within Earth planet: “the oldest rocks of the continents show distinct
marks of having been deposited in water, consequently the Ocean is older than
the oldest known rocks”. Keeping this concept in mind it is reasonable to
consider these set of rocks are representing the earliest crustal ones, and
this fact suggests that a world-wide primordial oceanic crust arose within
the early Precambrian (Glikson 1972).
So, the available information allows sustaining that oceans and
continental crust already existed almost four billion years ago, considering
the dated gneissic sequences and detrital zircons corresponding to this
period, which signed out 4.4–4.2 Gyr age (Nutman 2006).
A large amount of geological evidence has suggested that both the
atmosphere and the ocean evolved as a result of outgassing of the Earth,
showing that volcanism and associated outgassing have been going on for
more than 3 Gyr. The presence of this global shallow ocean was of great
importance to the degassing processes. This does not mean that there
were continents similar to the modern equivalent, rather that crustal rock
with comparatively low density, and thus relatively high buoyancy, must
Figure 1.1. Distribution of the Archaean Ocean. Unnamed continental masses within the
primitive World’s ocean.
have been accumulating from very ancient times. It could be assumed that
degassing of the first ~5% of the late impactors resulted in a proto-ocean
with a mass approximating 5% of the present ocean, which might cover
most of the Earth with a relatively thin layer of water produced by the
mentioned degassing (Shaw 2016). Volatiles from outgassing interacted
with the alkaline crust to form an ocean with pH 8–9 as to produce an
atmosphere basically consisting of CO, CO2, N2 and H2. The presence of a
large shallow proto-ocean during most of the accretion and degassing of the
late meteoritic veneer was very significant for the early atmosphere and the
degassing processes, recognized as the main source within Earth’s volatile
inventory. One interesting question on this point is: where did the water
come from?... Genda and Ikoma (2008) proposed three possible sources
of water within primitive Earth: (i) water-containing rocky planetesimals
like carbonaceous chondrites (CC’s); (ii) icy planetesimals like comets; and,
(iii) the solar nebula. Within this scenario, and considering the occurrence
of a massive H2 + H2O atmosphere, several consecutive steps may have
evolved: (i) in a sufficiently hot atmosphere all water would occur in vapor
form; (ii) When the atmosphere cooled down, water vapor would condense
and fall to form an ocean.
While the geological rock register dates back to ~4 Gyr within Earth
planet history, a correlated stock of samples from the original proto-ocean
seawater does not exist, and this fact fully complicates the understanding
of composition and evolution of seawater over time. Fortunately, there is
an alternative which can provide a partial record of seawater evolution,
even considering that several limitations may exist. So, chemical sediments
precipitated from seawater (i.e., limestones, iron formations, phosphorites)
can represent the trace element and isotopic characteristics of the water mass
from which they form, allowing inferring several chemical features of the
ancient oceans (Derry and Jacobsen 1990). In addition, Komiya et al. (2008)
have proposed three types of methods to estimate seawater composition:
(1) from the composition of fluid inclusions in evaporate minerals, quartz
and halite (Foriel et al. 2004), (2) from the mineral parageneses in chemical
sediments of carbonate rocks and evaporites (Hardie 2003), and (3) from
the composition of the carbonate rocks and banded iron formation (Kato
et al. 2006).
Biogeochemical signatures preserved in ancient sedimentary rocks
provide clues to identify the magnitude, distribution trend and evolution
of main seawater chemical parameters, and so the reconstruction of palaeo-
environmental conditions within the Primitive Ocean is possible (Scott et
al. 2008). In this sense, that of ocean palaeo-temperatures has received huge
efforts during the last decades, and the obtained results allows to sustain
that between 3.5–1.2 Gyr ago the ocean was hot, with temperatures varying
among 55 to 85ºC (De la Rocha 2006). The same range of temperature values
has been determined by Blake et al. (2010) working with studies on oxygen
and silicon isotope compositions of cherts as well as on protein evolution

during the early Palaeo-Archaean era (3.5 Gyr ago).
Simultaneously, salinity values within the Archaean Ocean was
estimated to be ~1.5–2 times the modern values (~72–75‰), remaining
with very high levels throughout the Archaean, and it has been attributed
to the absence of long-lived continental cratons required to sequester giant
halite beds and brine derived from evaporating seawater (Knauth 2005).
This information fully agreed with that previously reported by De Ronde
et al. (1997), who have assessed Archaean Ocean’s salinity values between
180–490% modern ones.
What happened with nutrient salts from seawater during this
period? Globally, nitrogen and phosphorus have been recognized as
potentially limiting of the biologically mediated carbon assimilation by
photoautotrophs within the oceans (Falkowski 1997). During planetary
accretion nitrogen was delivered to the protoplanet as solid NH3 (ice), amino
acids, and other simple organics; these reduced forms were slowly oxidized
via high-temperature reactions in the upper mantle to form atmospheric N2,
which was outgassed from volcanoes (Yokochi et al. 2009), and consequently
entered into the Archaean Ocean. Godfrey and Falkowski (2009) proposed
a very simple nitrogen cycle which could be occurred within the Archaean
Ocean, including biological reduction of N2 to NH4+, and release of NH4+
to water column via bacteria respiration and grazing.
Precambrian concentrations of dissolved silicon were extreme, not
far from the point of saturation, and were largely controlled by abiotic
reactions (Siever 1991). Silica concentrations in Precambrian oceans would
have been much higher in the absence of silica-secreting organisms, and
its precipitation would have been induced by evaporative supersaturation
or coprecipitation with solid-phase iron minerals (Hamade et al. 2003). In
addition, van den Boorn et al. (2007) proposed both seawater saturated
as well as hydrothermal activity as primary sources of silica within the
Archaean ocean.
Phosphorus on primitive Earth was originally trapped in igneous rock,
mainly as calcium orthophosphate, which was slowly leached from the
surface rocks and carried to the seas in run-off water. It has been proposed
that ~3 Gyr were necessary to decompose enough rocks to saturate the
seas with respect to apatites (Griffith et al. 1977). After this, the amount
of P available to organisms rapidly increased based on rich sedimentary
deposits exposed to weathering and leaching.
In this way, a quiet aggressive scenario for the development of any
kind of life within Primitive Ocean has been described: an extremely hot,
saline and alkaline environment is present during Precambrian (i.e., T up
to 85ºC, S up to 75‰, pH up to 9). These physical-chemical conditions fully
ruled the emergence, distribution and concentration of a significant element
from the view point of life evolution: oxygen. The natural occurrence of
this gas was scarce during Precambrian, considering its extremely little
concentration within primitive atmosphere, very low solubility due to high
seawater temperature (Henry’s law) and small proportion of photochemical
dissociation of water vapor (Berkner and Marshall 1965). Consequently, the
declining solubility of oxygen gas with temperature would have magnified
ocean hypoxia under the low oxygen levels of the Precambrian atmosphere,
virtually voiding the development of multicellular animal life (De la Rocha
2006). Nevertheless, different evidences from several lines of investigation
confirmed that the oxygen level in the atmosphere and oceans was very
low during the Archaean and Early Palaeoproterozoic. This conclusion
was also confirmed by the discovery of large degrees of Mass-Independent
Fractionation (MIF) of the sulfur isotopes in sulfides and sulfates in pre-
2.45 Gyr sedimentary rocks (Gaucher et al. 2008). So, it is possible that
the inferred trend in palaeotemperature reflects an ecological trajectory
as ancient bacteria made the transition from hot springs and thermal
vents to the open ocean. Marine life was limited to microbes (including
cyanobacteria) that could tolerate the hot, saline early ocean. Because O2
solubility decreases strongly with increasing temperature and salinity, the
Archaean ocean was anoxic and dominated by anaerobic microbes even if
atmospheric O2 were somehow as high as 70% of the modern level (Knauth
2005).
Within this palaeo-environmental framework organic geochemical
data, mainly those from carbon isotopic composition of kerogen (insoluble
organic matter) pointed out carbonaceous material within these sediments
as probably produced by photoautotrophs, such as photosynthetic bacteria
or blue-green algae (Schopf 1974). So, evidence indicates that living systems
were present and widespread as early as 3.2 Gyr ago, and photoautotrophs
would presumably be the dominant one (Schopf 2011; Farquhar et al. 2011).
The earliest attributable microfossils of possible cyanobacteria occurred in
the 3.5 Gyr Apex Chert of Western Australia, at the same time as the first
evidence for oxygen in the Archaean oceans (Schopf 1993; Hoashi et al.
2009). The function of this ocean system during at least 1 billion years has
built the new scenario which will displayed along the Proterozoic.
Great changes of Ocean during Proterozoic (2.5–0.543 Gyr ago)
The Archaean-Proterozoic boundary presumably represents the most

important transition time within the Earth’s crust and atmosphere evolution
(Watanabe et al. 1997). In this sense, Poulton et al. (2004) have properly
described that “The Proterozoic aeon (2.5 to 0.54 Gyr ago) marks the time between
the largely anoxic world of the Archaean (> 2.5 Gyr ago) and the dominantly
oxic world of the Phanerozoic (< 0.54 Gyr ago)”. It is a transcendental event
considering that during this aeon the adequate scenario which would allow
the explosive biological development from Paleozoic has been settled.
Approximately 2 Gyr ago a significant oxidation of the Earth’s

surface occurred, probably driven by increasing input of oxygen into the
atmosphere linked to the raise within sedimentary burial of organic matter
among 2.3 and 2.0 Gyr (Karhu and Holland 1996; Canfield 1998). This was
a slow and complex process, and the geochemical evidence suggests that a
delay of several hundred million years between the evolution of oxygenic
photosynthesis and the accumulation of oxygen in Earth’s atmosphere must
have occurred. In addition, the deep ocean would have remained euxinic
for several hundred million years after the atmosphere became oxygenated
(Fennel et al. 2005). In this sense, Holland (2006), in a very detailed overview
on The oxygenation of the atmosphere and oceans, has proposed that the last
3.85 Gyr of Earth history should been divided into five stages; (i) Stage 1
(3.85–2.45 Gyr): the oxygen level in the atmosphere and oceans was very
low during the Archaean and Early Palaeoproterozoic, and measurements
indicate that the O2 content of the Archaean atmosphere was generally less
than ~10–5 Present Atmospheric.
Level (PAL) (2 p.p.m.v.; Kasting et al. 2001; Pavlov and Kasting 2002).
(ii) Stage 2 (2.45–1.85 Gyr): atmospheric O2 clearly appeared between
2.41 and 2.32 Gyr; the lack of Banded Iron Formation (BIF) deposition
reduced or eliminated a minor O2 sink, contributing to the transition of
the atmosphere to an oxygenated state. A decrease in the hydrothermal
flux of H2 and H2S, and changes in the biosphere and in the nutrient flux
to the oceans should have been other potentially important changes within
the Earth’s redox system. The period between 2.4 and 2.0 Gyr has become
known as the Great Oxidation Event (GOE). (iii) Stage 3 (1.85–0.85 Gyr):
the O2 content of the atmosphere was 10–20% PAL. Consequently, the O2
content of seawater would become exhausted during its passage from the
sea surface downward and along the oceanic conveyor belt. The deep ocean
would therefore have become anoxic or euxinic, if all other parameters
of the system had remained unchanged. (iv) Stage 4 (0.85–0.54 Gyr): The
largest three ice ages impacted the Earth and may have been followed by
unusually hot climates (Hoffman and Schrag 2002). High positive δ13C
excursions of marine carbonates occurred during this period, pointing out
the burial of excess carbon and the generation of excess O2. Atmospheric O2
and SO4– in seawater should have reached levels probably not much lower
than those of the present day. (v) Stage 5 (the last 0.54 Gyr): atmospheric O2
might have probably significantly varied during the Phanerozoic. Berner
(2004) indicated that atmospheric O2 may have reached values as high as
0.35 atm during the Permo–Carboniferous. The surface oceans must have
been oxygenated throughout the Phanerozoic, but the oxidation state of
the deeper oceans had widely fluctuated.
Oxygen deficiency has demonstrated to be a major driver of evolution
and extinction throughout Earth history. The evolution and extinction of life
are strongly linked to the oxygen state of the ocean, and particularly to the
presence of anoxic and/or euxinic water on a global scale (Lyons et al. 2009).
Oceans chemical composition has significantly changed with the
oxidation of Earth’s surface, and both evolutionary and biological history
of life are strongly related with this process (Cloud 1972). The early Earth
was characterized by a reducing ocean-atmosphere system, whereas the
Phanerozoic Eon (< 0.543 Gyr) represented a stably oxygenated biosphere
including complex ecosystems with large biological diversity (Reinhard et
al. 2013). The ocean started to be ventilated at ~1.8 Gyr linked to BIF duck-
out; nevertheless, it has been commonly assumed that the mid-Proterozoic
Earth presented a globally euxinic ocean supporting the corresponding
marine systems (Brocks et al. 2005).
So, significant changes occurring on the Earth’s surface from 2.5–2.0 Gyr
included increase in atmospheric O2, SO4– in seawater, and accumulation
of great amount of organic-rich sediments. This scenario led to the Great
Oxidation Event (GOE), characterized by the transition from deposition of
iron formation to the deposition of red beds (Rogers and Santosh 2009). In
this sense, Archaean ocean seawater could be characterized as hot (> 50ºC),
saline and anoxic. After this (~1.2 Gyr ago) ocean salinity decreased and
O2 level increased, presumably mediated by the appearance of large areas
of shallow water on continental crust (Knauth 2005). Evidence suggested
that seawater was enriched in carbonate before 1.8 Gyr, whereas sulfate was
more abundant after that time (Ohmoto et al. 2004; Johnston et al. 2006).
Thereby, and even taking into account that organic evolution presents
significant uncertainties, it could be sustained that ~1.8 Gyr ago both the
atmosphere and oceans contained enough oxygen to support eukaryotic life
(Rogers and Santosh 2009a). In fact, evidence pointed out that the mentioned
oxidation within Earth’s environment has occurred in two steps: a first one
(~2.4–2.2 Gyr) described as surface oxidation; and a second one (~0.8–0.58
Gyr) described as a biospheric oxygenation, turning up just before large
animals appeared within the fossil record (Canfield and Teske 1996; Shen
et al. 2003). This two-staged oxidation condition allowed proposing unique
ocean chemistry for much of the Proterozoic eon, which would have been
neither completely anoxic and iron-rich as hypothesized for Archaean seas,
nor fully oxic as supposed for most of the Phanerozoic eon (Canfield 1998).
The starting times of the Earth were characterized by the presence
of supercontinents, which have played a significant role within the
planet history (Meert 2012). The properties and characteristics of the
supercontinents have conditioned the development and magnitude of
the associated processes (i.e., global circulation, terrestrial weatherability,
etc.), as well as their corresponding breakups have originated not only
new continents and large continental landmasses but also the oceans
included around them (Kheraskova et al. 2010) (Fig. 1.2). There are at least
three periods in Earth history during which most (> 75%) of the Earth’s
Figure 1.2. Distribution of supercontinents during Proterozoic era. In the image Columbia
supercontinent is observed.
continental crust was assembled in a rigid (or quasi-rigid) supercontinent.

These three supercontinents are named Columbia (during the Archaean-
Paleoproterozoic, up to ~1.8 Gyr) (Rogers and Santosh 2009b), Rodinia
(during Neoproterozoic, ~1.1 Gyr) (McMenamin and McMenamin 1990),
and Pangaea (during Paleozoic, ~0.3 Gyr) (Wegener 1912; 1915).
Rodinia supercontinent’s breakup represented a significant
environmental change during the Neoproterozoic Era (~1.0–0.54 Myr).
It was a period plenty of ice sheets, and global temperatures dropped
to –50ºC during two long-lived ‘snowball’ events (Gernon et al. 2016).
During Neoproterozoic Snowball Earth glaciations, the oceans’ alkalinity
significantly increased, generating massive cap carbonates deposition on
deglaciation. Continental breakup led to acute increases in riverine runoff
and silicate weathering, producing a high CO2 depletion, leading to a
‘snowball’ state (Donnadieu et al. 2004).
Maruyama (1994) suggested that supercontinent breakup was initiated
by a superplume situated in what at present is the South Pacific. A triple-
point junction over the superplume could have resulted in the opening of
the North Pacific, South Pacific and Paleo-Asian Oceans (Maruyama 1994).
Two stages of the Rodinia break-up have been suggested by Dobretsov
et al. (1995): (1) the first stage (0.9–0.8 Gyr) resulted in the opening of the
Paleo-Asian ocean; and (2) the second stage (0.75–0.7 Gyr) resulted in the
opening of the Paleo-Pacific. The breakup of the latest-Mesoproterozoic
supercontinent Rodinia and its transformation into the end-Neoproterozoic
to Paleozoic supercontinent Gondwana is recorded in the life cycle of four
main ocean basins and their margins: the Mirovoi, Mozambique, Pacific
and Iapetus Oceans (Fig. 1.3).
Summarizing, the Proterozoic aeon (2.5 to 0.54 billion years (Gyr) ago)
marks the time between the largely anoxic world of the Archaean (> 2.5 Gyr
ago) and the dominantly oxic world of the Phanerozoic (< 0.54 Gyr ago). The
Figure 1.3. Distribution of oceans within Proterozoic: the breakup of the latest-Mesoproterozoic
Rodinia supercontinent.
course of ocean chemistry through the Proterozoic has traditionally been

explained by progressive oxygenation of the deep ocean in response to an
increase in atmospheric oxygen around 2.3 Gyr ago. Sulfidic conditions may
have persisted until a second major rise in oxygen between 0.8 to 0.58 Gyr
ago, possibly reducing global rates of primary production and arresting
the pace of algal evolution. The redox chemistry of Proterozoic oceans has
important implications for biological evolution. A significant point which
deserves to be highlighted was that increasing terrestrial weatherability
during the late Neoproterozoic may explain low temperature, increases
in ocean phosphate, ocean sulfate, and atmospheric oxygen concentration
at this time.
The Life Revolution within Earth: the Paleozoic Oceans (543–248 Myr)
The late Precambrian and Cambrian world experienced explosive evolution

of the biosphere agreeing with deep changes in climate, atmospheric
and oceanic conditions over this span of time (Brasier 1992). The largely
documented early adaptive radiation of large energetic metazoans along
the Proterozoic-Phanerozoic transition was necessarily based in a solid
source of primary productivity, which should have been the phytoplankton.
In this sense Butterfield (1997) proposed that the first significant shift
in phytoplankton diversity was therefore the rapid radiation of small
acanthomorphic acritarchs in the Early Cambrian, as well as the occurrence
of a ‘trophic cascade scenario’ accountable for a strong top-down ecological
motor supporting the Cambrian radiation. The Proterozoic-Phanerozoic
transition is noted for secular fluctuations in the δ13C values of sedimentary
carbon as a consequence of differential carbon burial and/or net primary
productivity presumably linked to major biotic events (Brasier et al. 1994).
Secular changes in seawater chemistry also appear to have influenced

phytoplankton evolutionary trajectories, i.e., strongly redox state dependent
trace elements (Fe, Cu, Zn, Mn) played essential roles in mediating critical
biochemical reactions in all phytoplankton (Katz et al. 2004). In addition,
Quigg et al. (2003) reported that historical changes in the redox state of
the ocean had a critical role in determining the evolutionary trajectory
of different heterogeneous groups of photosynthetic organisms, like
dinoflagellates among others.
The Precambrian-Cambrian boundary was a time of dramatic changes
in global environmental conditions, including glaciations (even extended
to tropical and equatorial latitudes), intense carbonates depositions, and
significant modifications in the chemistry of ocean waters (Dalziel 1997). Sea
level globally rose during Cambrian time, starting the first order eustatic
cycle which developed along the whole Paleozoic Era. It is necessary to fully
consider the ever-changing distribution of continents and ocean basins to
properly understand that Earth’s environment (Fig. 1.4).
Strong changes in carbonate mineralogy have been reported across the
Precambrian-Cambrian transition. It could be supported on two geochemical
hypothesis: increasing ratio of Ca:Mg ions in seawater or increasing pCO2
due to high volcanic activity. Major episodes of evaporation close to the
Precambrian-Cambrian and Lower-Middle Cambrian boundaries were
also recorded. Warm, saline bottom waters could also explain numerous
indications of anoxia in latest Precambrian and Cambrian strata. During
rising sea levels, such waters may result in oxygen depletion, leading to
the formation of black shales (Brassier 1992).
It has been shown that glacial conditions were widespread in the
late Precambrian Varangian epoch. The change towards ‘greenhouse’
conditions possibly began with the development of deep, saline bottom
waters, produced in evaporitic rift basins. Different transgressions brought
Figure 1.4. Oceans distribution along Paleozoic era: the dominant Panthalassic Ocean.
salinity stratified waters onto the shelf, laying down extensive metalliferous
black shales and phosphorites. Reduced rates of nutrient recycling during
transgressions may account for lowered primary productivity in surface
waters. Briefly, and in the words by Brassier (1992) “the Precambrian-Cambrian
boundary interval perhaps indicates what happens when a salinity-stratified ocean
is perturbed by climatic change and/or sea level rise; a rich broth of nutrients flooded
the carbonate platforms and eutrophication arguably led to a huge but temporary
rise in the biomass of primary producers”. In this sense, it is important to keep
in mind that cycles of changing sea level with very different periodicity
have been recognized during the whole Phanerozoic: from the 100–200
m.y. cycles of Sloss (1963; 1972) up to the oscillations during the Pleistocene
which may have been as short as 10,000 years (McKerrow 1979).
Links between the biogeochemical cycles of carbon and sulfur are
expressed in the evolving stable isotope composition of the ocean. Carbonate
rocks record the inorganic carbon isotope composition of the oceanic
reservoir through geological time, along with the sulfate sulfur isotope
composition preserved as Carbonate-Associated Sulfate (CAS). Throughout
the Phanerozoic there is a general first order inverse relationship between
the carbon and sulfur isotope records (Veizer et al. 1980). This relationship
has been linked to the mass-balance between the oxidized and reduced
reservoirs of both elements. Removal of sulfur from the ocean occurs
through two major pathways: precipitation of sulfate minerals during
evaporite deposition and the burial of pyrite. The biogeochemical cycles
of sulfur and carbon are coupled through a network of input and output
fluxes that are linked to the environmental conditions. The carbon and sulfur
isotope records of the Paleozoic track an evolving oceanic reservoir and
atmosphere. A progressive decoupling of the short-term carbon and sulfur
isotope systems over the duration of the Paleozoic may have recorded an
increasing oceanic sulfur reservoir against a backdrop of generally low DIC
in the Paleozoic ocean (Gill et al. 2007). δ13C data for Palaeozoic carbonates
of the Great Basin, USA showed to be extremely ‘spikey’ (Saltzman 2005),
suggesting that between 299 and 513 Myr ago (Ma) the rate of organic
carbon burial varied rapidly in this part of the oceans and possibly in the
world ocean.
Widespread anoxia in the ocean is frequently invoked as a primary driver
of mass extinction as well as a long-term inhibitor of evolutionary radiation
on early Earth. Gill et al. (2011) reported a large and rapid excursion in the
marine carbon isotope record (SPICE), which is recognized as indicative of
a global carbon cycle perturbation (Saltzman et al. 2000; 2004). These results
identify the SPICE interval as the best characterized ocean anoxic event
in the pre-Mesozoic ocean and an extreme example of oxygen deficiency
in the later Cambrian ocean. Consequently, the environmental challenges
presented by widespread anoxia may have been a dominant influence on
animal evolution in Cambrian oceans. If anoxic water masses occurred

widely in the subsurface of the later Cambrian ocean the high rates of
biological turnover (Bambach et al. 2004) and repeated trilobite extinctions
documented for later Cambrian fossils can be at least partially explained
by episodic expansion of oxygen-depleted waters (Gill et al. 2011). In this
way, broad patterns of Cambrian animal evolution may reflect persistent
oxygen deficiency in subsurface waters of Cambrian oceans. Black shales
are common in Proterozoic marine successions (particularly during much of
the Paleozoic; Arthur and Sageman 1994), which indicates oxygen depletion
beneath surface water masses in the oxygen-minimum zone (Shen et al.
2002; 2003). Deep-water anoxia may have been particularly pronounced
near the end of the Permian (Isozaki 1997b). Ocean anoxia increases the
availability of Fe, Mn, P, and NH4+, and decreases the availability of Cd,
Cu, Mo, Zn, and NO3–, favoring some phytoplankton lineages over others
when subsurface reducing conditions prevailed (Katz et al. 2004).
A rise in atmospheric O2 has been linked to the Cambrian explosion of
life. For the plankton and animal adaptive radiation that began some 40
Myr later and continued through much of the Ordovician (Great Ordovician
Biodiversification Event), the search for an environmental trigger has
remained elusive. Carbon and sulfur isotope mass balance model for the
latest Cambrian time interval spanning the globally recognized Steptoean
Positive Carbon Isotope Excursion (SPICE), indicating a major increase in
atmospheric O2. The SPICE is followed by an increase in plankton diversity
that may have been related to changes in macro- and micronutrient
abundances in increasingly oxic marine environments, representing a critical
initial step in the trophic chain (Saltzman et al. 2011). Highest phytoplankton
diversity of the Palaeozoic presumably occurred due to palaeogeography
(greatest continental dispersal) and major orogenic and volcanic activity,
which provided maximum ecospace and large amounts of nutrients. With
its warm climate and high atmospheric CO2 levels, the Ordovician was
a period when phytoplankton diversity was at its maximum during the
Paleozoic. With increased phytoplankton availability in the Late Cambrian
and Ordovician a radiation of zooplanktonic organisms took place at the
same time as a major diversification of suspension feeders (Servais et al.
2008).
The first suggestion that a wide ocean was present in the early
Palaeozoic between America and Europe (Wilson 1966) was based primarily
on faunal differences; this ocean was named Iapetus (Harland and Gayer
1972) after the father of Atlas (from whom the Atlantic Ocean takes its
name) (McKerrow 1988). During the Late Proterozoic and Early Palaeozoic
the supercontinent Rodinia broke up, in a process that was the origin of
Iapetus Ocean which emerged by continental rifting, progressing to seafloor
spreading in approximately the same position as the Atlantic Ocean (which
will be formed later during the Early Tertiary) (Fig. 1.4). This process
could have occurred in a short period around 620–605 Myr (Svenningsen
2001; McCausland et al. 2007). This continental separation may have
played a role—together with the ecological drivers that govern biological
diversity—in promoting Cambro-Ordovician phytoplankton and marine
invertebrate expansion (Katz et al. 2004). In fact, the Iapetus Ocean has been
described as a paleogeographic key change which aided the diversification
of life (Grotzinger et al. 1995). McKerrow (1988) have steadily proposed
that Iapetus Ocean did not close finally until the Silurian (in Greenland
and Norway) or the Devonian (in the northern Appalachians), but many
exposed ophiolites have been dated as Cambrian or Ordovician; clearly
there were different parts of Iapetus which ‘closed’ at different times, and
many of the Ordovician closures were related to marginal basins.
High concentrations of vanadium, molybdenum, uranium, arsenic,
antimony with low concentrations of manganese, iron and cobalt were
recorded in coeval black shales in the Saint John, New Brunswick area. Gee
(1981) and Wilde et al. (1989) suggested that this geochemical signature is a
feature of eastern Iapetus on the basis of these results as well as on palaeo-
oceanographic reconstructions of the mentioned ocean. The described
distinctive geochemical signature resulted from the coincidence of anoxic
waters transgressing the shelf at latitudes of high organic productivity at the
polar Ekman planetary divergence. V, U and Mo were concentrated in the
shales within these conditions. Furthermore, metal enriched anoxic bottom
waters produced either by leaching of volcanic or through hydrothermal
activity may presumably be the source of the other enhanced signature
elements such as As and Sb (Wilde et al. 1989). The major Cambrian
transgression of ocean water across the continents was probably driven by
the tectonic processes responsible for the fragmentation of Pannotia, which
would include a significant decrease in the generally rising 87Sr/86Sr ratio
of global seawater, pointing out hydrothermal activity along the newly
formed mid-Iapetus spreading ridge (Dalziel 1997).
Wilde et al. (1989) described a Primary Productivity (PP) cycle with
different support processes within Iapetus Ocean, and could briefly be
summarized as follows: PP would be enhanced in the vicinity of 0° and
60°S due to upwelling (Ekman pumping) or P, N and Si-rich waters along
the major planetary Ekman divergence zone. Upwelling also would have
been produced by entrainment and off shore advection because of the
equatorward flow at the eastern meridional boundary. At midlatitudes,
the eastern shore of Iapetus would have had seasonal spring-summer
upwelling caused by Ekman Transport produced by seasonal non-zonal
winds. Such seasonal upwelling, occurring during maximum insolation,
would have extended the enhanced productivity northward from the main
divergence at 60°S.
Another Paleozoic ocean which deserves to be mentioned and briefly

characterized is the Panthalassic Ocean (Fig. 1.4), which encompassed more
than half the Earth’s surface at 252 Myr. An upward transition from gray
organic-poor cherts to black siliceous mudstones at both sites occurred in
conjunction with increased primary productivity, intensified euxinia within
the Oxygen-Minimum Zone (OMZ), and decimation of the radiolarian
zooplankton community. Euxinia in the OMZ of the equatorial Panthalassic
Ocean developed episodically for a ~200–250 kyr interval during the Late
Permian, followed by an abrupt intensification and lateral expansion of
the OMZ around the Permian–Triassic boundary. Throughout the study
interval, bottom waters at both sites remained mostly suboxic, a finding
that counters hypotheses of development of a “superanoxic” Permo-
Triassic deep ocean as a consequence of stagnation of oceanic overturning
circulation (Algeo et al. 2011). The Panthalassic Ocean, covering some 70%
of the globe, was the largest surficial feature of the Permian and Triassic
world, and had the potential to exercise fundamental control of global
biogeochemistry (Schoepfer et al. 2012). Latest Permian deposits display
distinctive enrichments in 15N and 13Corg, suggesting a period of elevated
productivity and anoxia before the final termination of the western
Panthalassic upwelling zone, the loss of benthic siliceous sponges, and
the Permian/Triassic extinction. This productivity spike may have been
due to the synergistic effects of nutrient upwelling and rapid warming
and may have contributed to photic zone euxinia by increasing biological
oxygen demand.
The Permian/Triassic Boundary (PTB) mass extinction at ~252 Ma
was the largest biotic catastrophe of the Phanerozoic Eon, resulting in
the disappearance of ~90% of marine species as well as a large fraction of
terrestrial taxa (Bambach et al. 2004). The cause of this event has long been
debated, and various hypotheses have been proposed: i.e., a meteorite
impact, flood basalt volcanism, global oceanic anoxia, and long-term
climate change (Hallam and Wignall 1997; Wignall 2007). Lately it has been
demonstrated that many shallow-marine platforms of Late Permian and
Early Triassic age experienced euxinic conditions, i.e., a lack of dissolved
oxygen along with free H2S in the water column (Grice et al. 2005; Riccardi
et al. 2006; Algeo et al. 2008). Environmental conditions in the larger
Panthalassic Ocean, comprising 85–90% of the area of the Permian–Triassic
global ocean, are fully defined on the basis of the only surviving marine
strata from the Panthalassic Ocean now located within accretionary terranes
in Japan, New Zealand and western Canada (Kojima 1989; Isozaki 1997a).
Results from these studies on Permo-Early Triassic Panthalassic structures
allowed recording a transient interval of environmentally hostile conditions
(Sano and Nakashima 1997; Musashi et al. 2001).
Environmental conditions in the deep Panthalassic Ocean during the

Permo-Triassic have included controversial interpretations of the evidences.
On the one hand, strongly reducing (probably euxinic) conditions in
Panthalassic bottom waters have been described (Suzuki et al. 1998; Matsuo
et al. 2003), and such results have been used to infer widespread deep-
ocean anoxia during the Late Permian to Early Triassic interval (Wignall
and Twitchett 1996; 2002). On the other hand, the persistence and duration
of deep-water anoxia recorded by Japanese abyssal sections on the basis
of ichnofabric and other data have been questioned by several authors
(Kakuwa 2008; Algeo et al. 2010).
Summarizing, (1) major changes in marine primary productivity
rates and plankton community composition in conjunction with the PTB
boundary crisis, were reported and (2) the most pronounced changes in
redox conditions of the Panthalassic Ocean occurred within the OMZ rather
than in the deep ocean (Algeo et al. 2011).
The last particular type of marine environments characterizing the
Paleozoic was the epeiric seas, which were extensively distributed along
most palaeocontinents (Fig. 1.5) (Ziegler et al. 1977).
Epicontinental or epeiric seas represent shallow oceanic bodies resulting
from the flooding of continental interiors. Their geographic position and
temporal distribution is dominantly controlled by two major factors: sea
level and continental elevation. Epeireic seas are virtually absent at the
present time not only because the continental regions in today’s world
are generally quite elevated, but also due to the fact that current tectonic
activity is fairly slow (Harries 2009).
Although the flooded continental area is a small percentage of the
total oceanic area suitable for phytoplankton, the shallow seas appear
to have contributed proportionally more to niche space because of high
nutrient input, high rates of primary production, and habitat heterogeneity.
Figure 1.5. Distribution of Epeireic seas during Paleozoic.

Flooded continental area provides variable, high-nutrient habitat by

creating additional upwelling zones and increasing turbulence and nutrient
suspension from below the thermocline. In addition, terrestrial nutrient
input likely increases because nutrients that were previously sequestered in
the large supercontinent interior are more readily transported to the newly
opened, nearby oceans (Katz et al. 2004).
The Permian–Triassic Boundary (PTB: ~251.0–253.0 Myr) is known as
a period when the most profound collapse both of marine and terrestrial
ecosystems and the global environmental devastation occurred (Erwin
1994). Palaeontological studies on fossil records have showed that
approximately 90% of marine and terrestrial species became extinct at the
end of the Permian (Yin and Song 2013; Clarkson et al. 2015), being the
most abrupt biotic turnover of the Phanerozoic (Chen and Benton 2012;
Payne and Clapham 2012). Sano et al. (2012) in an extensive review have
reported numerous causes which could have been the promoters of this
catastrophe: i.e., changes in crustal weathering patterns (Kidder and Worsley
2004), changes in paleosoils in non-marine sections (Retallack et al. 2003),
aridification, vegetation loss, and fluvial drainage alteration, greenhouse
conditions and warming of the global ocean due to massive volcanic
eruptions and increased atmospheric CO2, as well as possible methane
clathrate releases (Benton and Twitchett 2003; Winguth et al. 2002). There is
also growing evidence that between the Middle Permian and Early Jurassic
the oxygen content of the Earth’s atmosphere may have varied markedly
with important biological consequences (Berner and Kothavala 2001; Berner
2004; Retallack et al. 2003; Huey and Ward 2005). Dramatic changes in
inorganic and organic δ13C records characterize Permian/Triassic Boundary
(PTB) geochemical records in the available rock record (Retallack et al.
2003; Payne et al. 2004). Negative shifts have been explained by addition of
13
C-depleted CO2 to the global atmosphere–ocean reservoir by catastrophic
methane release and oxidation (Retallack et al. 2003), exposure and oxidation
of buried organic matter (Berner 2004), anoxic ocean overturn (Knoll et al.
1996), and CO2 release during massive volcanism (Erwin et al. 2002; White
2002). Positive shifts in the organic δ13C of marine sediments, which have
been observed in other Panthalassic deep water sections (Isozaki 2009)
have proven more difficult to explain, potentially reflecting both changes
in the productivity and composition of marine planktonic communities
(Butterfield 1997; Katz et al. 2004), and variation in the degree to which
various organic components (such as proteins) are preferentially degraded
in a stratified versus pervasively anoxic ocean (Isozaki 2009). As primary
productivity and associated biological oxygen demand may have fueled
Permian marine anoxia, it is important to understand the interplay between
Panthalassic biology and oxygen availability (Schoepfer et al. 2012).
After this environmental cataclysm as occurred within the Permian-

Triassic Boundary (PTB) a new scenario is coming for the evolving Earth
planet. ...
A new oceanographical, biogeochemical and biological outlook within

Mesozoic Oceans (248–65 My)
The Phanerozoic has presented secular oscillation in eustatic sea-level with

levels of 300 m, showing highest sea-level at Early-to-Mid Paleozoic, which
produced flooding extents of 20–50% of total cratonic area (Ridgwell 2005).
Particularly during Mesozoic a different Earth landscape had appeared,
which included the break-up of megacontinents and the occurrence
(in both, temporary or permanent ways) of different scales seas and oceans.
Regional oceans like Tethys (and its different stages: Palaeo Tethys, Neo
Tethys), pelagic epeiric or epicontinental facies (large intra-continental
water bodies produced at transgression peak), as well as the rising new
oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Indian) should clearly be included within this
pack (Fig. 1.6).
A strong set of evidences exist which indicates that Mesozoic ocean
water temperature was generally higher than at present, particularly in
identified mid- to high-latitudes environments (Hudson and Anderson
1989). These palaeo-temperature studies have applied both the oxygen
isotope method (measurement of the 18O/16O ratio on calcium carbonate-
or calcium phosphate-, considering this precipitation is temperature
dependent) (Buchardt 1978), as well as corresponding biotic distribution.
When the oceanic isotopic record of the Mesozoic was carefully analyzed
it could be observed that a recognized warmth and homogeneously
Tethys
Figure 1.6. Oceans distribution along Mesozoic era: the central position of Tethys Ocean, and
the rising Pacific and Indian Oceans.
distributed Cretaceous oceanic climates, indicating a mid-Cretaceous

thermal maximum which declined towards the Campanian-early
Maastrichtian (Hudson and Anderson 1989). In addition, the isotopic
compositions suggest that earlier Mesozoic oceans were not greatly different
from those of the Cretaceous.
The new rising Mesozoic oceans (i.e., Atlantic, Pacific, Indian) had
received an important impact on their chemical and isotopic composition
and evolution, showing that their deep waters were chemically and
thermally rejuvenated owing to hot spots, seafloor hydrothermal vents and
mid-ocean ridge hot springs activity (Bowers et al. 1985), continued apace
during Mesozoic (De Ronde et al. 1997).
On the other hand, a chain of events occurred along Mesozoic which
determined particular conditions characterizing this time. Therefore
oceans received large deposition of organic matter linked to flooding of
land-masses which transported much terrestrial plant material seawards.
This fact has stimulated two processes: the production and widespread
of marine plankton, as well as bacterial consumption of this organic
matter (Jenkyns 1980). These scenarios favored the development of poorly
oxygenated mid- to late Cretaceous waters, and simultaneously the
sedimentary record pointed out very low oxygen concentrations in much
of the world’s oceans at those times (Leckie et al. 2002). These periods,
so-called Oceanic Anoxic Events (OAEs), presented global marine waters
relatively depleted in oxygen, and with high deposition of organic matter
derived from both terrestrial and planktonic sources (Jenkyns 2010), and
were one of the characteristics of Mesozoic oceans (Pancost et al. 2004).
In addition, the described characterization of these OAEs has also been
endorsed through the marine isotope geochemistry of molybdenum (Mo)
which strongly suggested near total anoxia during those Mesozoic events
(Archer and Vance 2008).
Several studies have reported significant differences in the nature of the
two major OAE’s within Mesozoic oceans stages; i.e., Arthur and Natland
(1979) informed a significant terrestrial component in the organic material
from Aptian-Albian levels, as well as a more enriched planktonic one from
Cenomanian-Turonian age. Jenkyns (2010) proposed that these two OAEs
correlated with equivalent climates/transgressive pulses periods, which
agreed within their occurrence. In the modern oceans (since Cenozoic
and up to present) areas of high organic productivity are predominantly
localized within Mediterranean, marginal and shelf seas, and the ratio of
the surface of such seas to the global ocean surface is ~1:30; nevertheless,
during the peak of the Cretaceous transgression this ratio was at least 1:6
(Schlanger and Jenkyns 1976; Jenkyns 1980; 2010). Thus, assuming no
limiting factors such as primary nutrient supply from restricted landmasses,
it is likely that at that time the total amount of organic carbon produced
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
ones next, material and economic ones perhaps least. But in all
cases change or innovation is due to a shift of values that are
broader than the single phenomenon in question, and that are held
to impulsively instead of reasonably. That is why all social creations
—institutions, beliefs, codes, styles, speech forms—prove on
impartial analysis to be full of inconsistencies and irrationalities. They
have sprung not from weighed or reasoned choices but from
impulsive desires and emotionally colored habits.
The foregoing discussion may be summarized as follows.
Linguistic phenomena and processes are on the whole more deeply
unconscious than cultural ones, without however differing in
principle. In both language and culture, content is more readily
imparted and assimilated than form and enters farther into
consciousness. Organization or structure in both cases takes place
according to unconscious patterns, such as grammatical categories,
social standards, political or economic points of view, religious or
intellectual assumptions. These patterns attain recognition only in a
late stage of sophistication, and even then continue to alter and to be
influential without conscious control. The number of such linguistic
and social patterns being limited, they tend to be approximately
repeated without historic connection. Partially similar combinations of
such patterns sometimes recur, producing languages or cultures of
similar type. But established patterns, and still more their
combinations, replace each other with difficulty. Their spread
therefore takes place through the integral substitution of one
language or culture for another, rather than by piecemeal absorption.
This is in contrast to the specific elements of which language and
culture consist—individual words, mechanical devices, institutional
symbols, particular religious ideas or actions, and the like. These
elements absorb and diffuse readily. They are therefore imitated
more often than they are reinvented. But linguistic and cultural
patterns or structures growing up spontaneously may possess more
general resemblance than historic connection.
63. Linguistic and Cultural Standards

It does not follow that because social usages lack a rational basis,
they are therefore unworthy of being followed, or that standards of
conduct need be renounced because they are relative, that is,
unconsciously founded and changing. The natural inclination of men
being to regard their standards of taste, behavior, and social
arrangement as wholly reasonable, perfect, and fixed, there follows a
first inclination to regard these standards as valueless as soon as
their emotionality and variability have been recognized. But such a
tendency is only a negative reaction against the previous illusion
when this has disappointed by crumbling. The reaction is therefore in
a sense a further result of the illusion. Once the fundamental and
automatic assumption of fixity and inherent value of social patterns
has been given up, and it is recognized that the motive power of
behavior in man as in the other animals is affective and unconscious,
there is nothing in institutions and codes to quarrel with. They are
neither despicable nor glorious; no more deserving in virtue of their
existence to be uprooted and demolished than to be defended as
absolute and eternal. In some form or other, they are inevitable; and
the particular form which they take at this time or that place is always
tolerably well founded, in the sense of being adapted with fair
success, or having been but recently well adapted, to the conditions
of natural and social environment of the group which holds the
institution, code, or standard.
That this is a sane attitude is more easily shown in the field of
language than of culture, because, language being primarily a
mechanism or means, whereas in culture ends or purposes tend
more to obtrude, it is easier to view linguistic phenomena
dispassionately. Grammars and dictionaries, for instance, are
evidently the result of self-consciousness arising about speech which
has previously been mainly unconscious. They may be roughly
compared to social formulations like law codes or written
constitutions or philosophic systems or religious dogmas, which are
also representations of usages or beliefs already in existence. When
grammarians stigmatize expressions like ain’t or them cows or he
don’t as “wrong,” they are judging an innovation, or one of several
established conflicting usages, by a standard of correctness that
seems to them absolute and permanent. As a matter of actuality, the
condemned form may or may not succeed in becoming established.
He don’t, for example, might attain to correctness in time, although
ain’t is perhaps less likely to become legitimized, and them cows to
have still smaller prospect of recognition. That a form departs from
the canon of to-day of course no more proves that it will be accepted
in future than that it will not. What is certain is that if it wins sufficient
usage, it will also win sanction, and will become part of the standard
of its time.
Linguistic instances like these differ little if at all in principle, in their
involved psychology, from the finding of the Supreme Court that a
certain legislative enactment is unconstitutional and therefore void;
or from the decision of a denomination that dancing or playing golf
on Sunday is wicked; or from the widespread sentiment that
breaking an unpopular law like that on liquor prohibition is morally
justifiable. The chief point of divergence would seem to be that a
court is a constituted body endowed with an authority which is not
paralleled on the linguistic side, at any rate in Anglo-Saxon
countries; although the Latin nations possess Academies whose
dicta on correctness of speech enjoy a moral authority approximating
the verdicts of a high court.
It is also of interest to remember that the power of nullifying
legislation was not specifically granted the Supreme Court by the
Constitution of the United States, but that the practice grew up
gradually, quite like a speech innovation which becomes established.
Certain elements in the American population look upon this power as
undesirable and therefore take satisfaction in pointing out its
unsanctioned origin. The majority on the other hand feel that the
situation on the whole works out well, and that a Supreme Court with
its present powers is better than the risk of a Court without power.
Still, it remains curiously illogical that the preservation of the
Constitution should take place partly through the extra-constitutional
functioning of a constitutional body. In principle such a case is similar
to that of grammarians who at the same time lay down a rule and
exceptions to the rule, because the contradictory usages happen to
be actually established.
Codes, dogmas, and grammars are thus normally reflections
rather than causes. Such influence as they have is mainly in outward
crystallization. They produce a superficial appearance of
permanence. In the field of speech, it is easy to recognize that it is
not grammarians that make languages, but languages that make
grammarians. The analogous process evidently holds for culture.
Lawgivers, statesmen, religious leaders, discoverers, inventors,
therefore only seem to shape civilization. The deep-seated, blind,
and intricate forces that shape culture, also mold the so-called
creative leaders of society as essentially as they mold the mass of
humanity. Progress, so far as it can objectively be considered to be
such, is something that makes itself. We do not make it. Our
customary conviction to the contrary is probably the result of an
unconscious desire not to realize our individual impotence as
regards the culture we live in. Social influence of a sort we do have
as individuals. But it is a personal influence on the fortune and
careers of other individual members of society, and is concerned
largely with aims of personal security, relative dominance, or
affection among ourselves. This obviously is a different thing from
the exertion of influence on the form or content of civilization as
such.
64. Rapidity of Linguistic Change

The rate of change in language is circumscribed by the principles
of linguistic causality that have been discussed, but it remains an
obscure subject in detail. The opinion often held that unwritten
languages necessarily alter faster than written ones, or that those of
savages are less stable than the tongues of civilized men, is mainly
a naïve reflection of our sense of superiority. It contravenes the
principles just referred to and is not supported by evidence.
Occasional stories that a primitive tribe after a generation or two was
found speaking an almost made-over language are unconscious
fabrications due to preconception and supported by hasty
acquaintance, faulty records, misunderstanding, or perhaps change
of inhabitants. Nahuatl, the language of the Aztecs, has probably
changed less in four hundred years than Spanish; Quechua, that of
the Incas, no more. English has apparently altered more than any of
the three in the same period. Dozens of native tongues, some of
them from wholly rude peoples, were written down in the sixteenth
and seventeenth centuries by Spanish and other priests, and in most
instances the grammars and dictionaries prove to be usable to-day.
Cultural alteration would appear to work toward speech change
chiefly in certain ways. New things need new names; new acts mean
new thoughts and new ideas require new words. These may be
imported; or they may be made out of elements already in the
language; or old words may undergo a shift of meaning. In any
event, the change is mainly on the side of vocabulary. The sounds of
a language are generally much less affected; its plan of structure
least of all. The introduction of a new religion or development of a
new form of government among a people need not be accompanied
by changes in the grammar of their speech, and usually are not, as
abundant historical examples prove.
While the causes of grammatical innovation are far from clear,
contact with alien tongues is certainly a factor in some degree. An
isolated off-shoot of a linguistic group is generally more specialized,
and therefore presumably more altered, than the main body of
dialects of the family. The reason is that the latter, maintaining
abundant reciprocal contact, tend to steady one another, or if they
swerve, to do so in the same direction. The speakers of the branch
that is geographically detached, however, come to know quite
different grammars so far as they learn languages other than their
native one, and such knowledge seems to act as an unconscious
stimulus toward the growth of new forms and uses. It is not that
grammatical concepts are often imitated outright or grammatical
elements borrowed. Acquaintance with a language of different type
seems rather to act as a ferment which sets new processes going.
It is in the nature of the case that direct specific evidence of
changes of this character is hard to secure. But comparison of
related languages or dialects with reference to their location
frequently shows that the dialects which are geographically situated
among strange languages are the most differentiated. This holds of
Abyssinian in the Semitic family, of Brahui in Dravidian, of
Singhalese in the Indic branch of Indo-European, of Hopi and
Tübatulabal in Shoshonean, of Arapaho and Blackfoot in Algonkin, of
Huastec in Mayan.
But it is also likely that languages differ among each other in their
susceptibility to change, and that the same language differs in
successive periods of its history. It is rather to be anticipated that a
language may be in a phase now of rapid and then of retarded
metabolism, so to speak; that at one stage its tendency may be
toward breaking down and absorption, at another toward a more
rigid setting of its forms. Similarly, there is reason to believe that
languages of certain types of structure are inherently more plastic
than others. At any rate, actual differences in rate of change are
known. The Indo-European languages, for instance, have perhaps
without exception altered more in the three thousand years of
historic record than the Semitic ones. And so in native America,
while contemporary documentary record is of course wanting, the
degree of differentiation within the two stocks suggests strongly that
Athabascan is more tenaciously conservative than Siouan.
There are also notable differences in the readiness to borrow
words ready-made. English is distinctly more hospitable in this
regard than German, which tends rather to express a new concept
by a new formation of old elements. The South American languages
appear to have borrowed more words from one another than those
of North America. In this matter the type of language is probably of
some influence, yet on the whole cultural factors perhaps
predominate. The direction and degree of cultural absorption seem
to determine the absorption of words to a considerable measure.
Here writing is certainly potent. The Latin and French element in
English, the Sanskrit and Arabic element in the Malaysian
languages, were brought in to a large extent by writing, and would
evidently have remained much smaller if the historic contacts had
been wholly oral. This is perhaps the most important way in which
writing exerts influence on the development of spoken language; an
influence which in other respects is usually overestimated.
CHAPTER VI
THE BEGINNINGS OF HUMAN CIVILIZATION
65. Fossils of the body and of the mind.—66. Stone and metals.—67. The
Old and the New Stone Ages.—68. The Eolithic Age.—69. The
Palæolithic Age: duration, climate, animals.—70. Subdivisions of the
Palæolithic.—71. Human racial types in the Palæolithic.—72.
Palæolithic flint implements.—73. Other materials: bone and horn.—
74. Dress.—75. Harpoons and weapons.—76. Wooden implements.
—77. Fire.—78. Houses.—79. Religion.—80. Palæolithic art.—81.
Summary of advance in the Palæolithic.
65. Fossils of the Body and of the Mind

The discovery of fossils has yielded some idea of the history of the
human body during the past million years. The evidence is far from
complete, but there is enough to prove a development much as
might be expected under the hypothesis of evolution. To some extent
fossils also afford an insight into the development of the human
mind. The capacity of a skull gives the size of the brain. The interior
surface of the skull corresponds to the outer surface of the brain. In
this way some slight knowledge has been gained of the development
in ancient types of man of the convolutions and centers of the brain
surface with which mental activity is associated. Even limb bones
yield indirect indications. A straight thigh means an erect posture of
the body, with the arms no longer used for locomotion. Released
from this service, they are freed for other purposes, such as
grasping, handling, and various forms of what we call work. But a
hand adapted for work would be useless without an intelligence to
direct its operations. Thus the bones of our precursors provide
suggestions as to the degree of development of their minds. The
suggestions are sketchy and incomplete, but they are worth
something.
A second line of evidence is fuller. When a human or pre-human
hand has made any article, one can judge from that article what its
purpose is likely to have been, how it was used, how much
intelligence that use involved, what degree of skill was necessary to
manufacture the article. All such artifacts—tools, weapons, or
anything constructed—are a reflection of the degree of “culture” or
civilization, elementary or advanced, possessed by the beings who
made them.
On the whole the evidence to be got from artifacts as to the
degree of advancement of their makers or users is greater than the
information derivable from the structure of skeletons. A large brain
does not always imply high intelligence. Even a much convoluted
brain surface may accompany a mediocre mind. In other words, the
correlation between body and mind has not been worked out with
accuracy. On the other hand an advanced type of tool necessarily
implies more skill in its use, and therefore a decided development of
the use of intelligence. Similarly, if one finds nothing but simple tools
occurring among any past or present people, we may be sure that
their civilization and the training of their minds have remained
backward.
It is true that one cannot always infer from a particular
manufactured object the mentality of the particular person who
owned and used it. An imbecile may come into possession of a good
knife and even possess some ability in using it. But he can acquire
the knife only if there are other individuals in his community or time
who know how to smelt iron and forge steel. In short, even a single
jackknife is proof that human ingenuity has progressed to the point of
making important discoveries, and that arts of relatively high order
are being practised. In this way a solitary implement, if its discovery
is thoroughly authenticated, may suffice to establish a relatively high
or low degree of civilization for a prehistoric period or a vanished
race.
An implement manufactured by human hands of the past is of
course different from an actual fossil of a former human being, and it
is always necessary to distinguish between the two. The one is
something made by a human being and in some measure reflecting
the development of his intelligence; the other something left over or
preserved from the human body itself. Nevertheless, in a
metaphorical sense, the implements of the past may well be spoken
of as the fossils of civilization. They are only its fragments, but they
allow us to reconstruct the mode of life of prehistoric peoples and
utterly forgotten nations, in much the same way as the geologist and
the palæontologist reconstruct from true fossils the forms of life that
existed on the earth or in the seas millions of years ago.
There is even a further parallel. Just as the geologist knows that
one fossil is older or younger than another from its position in the
earth’s crust or the stratum in which it was laid down, so the student
of the beginnings of human civilization knows that the deposit at the
bottom of a cave must be more ancient than the refuse at the top. He
calls in the geologist to tell him the age of a glacial deposit or of a
river terrace, and thus he may learn that, of two types of implements
found at different places or levels, one is so many thousands of
years or geological periods older than the other. In the long run, too,
the older implements prove to be the simpler. Thus archæologists
have succeeded in working out an evolution of civilization which
parallels rather neatly the evolution of life forms. This evolution of
human mental operations as it is reflected in the artifacts preserved
from the lowest and earliest strata of civilization is the subject of the
present chapter.
There is another way in which the evidence on the two lines of
evolution is similar: its incompleteness. The geological record has
been compared to a book from which whole chapters are missing; of
others, but stray leaves remain; and only now and then have
consecutive pages been preserved unmutilated. Humanity has
always been so much less populous than the remainder of the
animal kingdom, especially in its earlier stages, that the number of
individuals whose bones have been preserved as fossils is infinitely
smaller. The result is that we account ourselves fortunate in having
been able to assemble six or seven not quite complete skeletons,
and fragmentary portions of two or three dozen other individuals, of
the Neandertal race which inhabited western Europe for thousands
of years. For still earlier races or species of man the actual data are
even scantier. Knowledge of so fundamental a form as
Pithecanthropus, the earliest of the antecedents of man yet known,
rests on two bones and two teeth, plus a third tooth discovered as
the sole result of a subsequent expedition. Heidelberg man has to be
reconstructed from a jaw.
The remains which illustrate the development of the human mind
are not so scarce. A single man might easily manufacture hundreds
or even thousands of implements in the course of a lifetime. When
these are of stone they are practically imperishable; whereas it is
only the exceptional skeleton, protected by favorable circumstances,
of which the bones will endure for thousands of years. For every
ancient true fossil trace of man that has been found, we have
therefore thousands of the works of his hands.
The inadequateness of the cultural record is not in the insufficient
number of the specimens, but in their onesidedness. Objects of
stone, even those of horn and of metal, last; clothing, fabrics, skins,
basketry, and wooden articles ordinarily decay so rapidly as to have
no chance of being preserved for tens of thousands of years. Tools
of the most ancient times have often been found in abundance;
objects manufactured with tools from softer and less enduring
materials are scarce even from moderately old periods. Now and
then a piece of an earthenware pot may show the imprint of a textile.
Textiles and foodstuffs are occasionally preserved by charring in fire
or by penetration of metallic salts. Charcoal or ashes found in
pockets or beds indicate that fire was maintained in one spot for
considerable periods, and must therefore have been controlled and
used, possibly even produced, by human agency. A bone needle
with an eye proves that some one must have sewn, and one may
therefore assume that garments were worn at the time. But for every
point established in this way there are dozens about which
knowledge remains blank.
Understanding of the social and religious life of the earliest men is
naturally filled with the greatest gaps, and the farther back one goes
in time, the greater is the enveloping darkness. The problem is as
difficult as that of figuring accurately the degree of intelligence
attained by the mailed fishes of the Devonian age some thirty or forty
million years ago, or of estimating whether the complexion of
Pithecanthropus was black, brown, or white. One can guess on
these matters. One may by careful comparisons obtain some partial
and indirect indication of an answer. But it is clearly wisest not to try
to stretch too far the conclusions which can be drawn. Imagination
has its value in science as in art and other aspects of life, yet when it
becomes disproportionate to the facts, it is a danger instead of an
aid.
Still, now and then something has been preserved from which one
may draw inferences with a reasonable prospect of certainty even
concerning the non-material side of life. If human bones are
discovered charred and split open, there is good reason for believing
these bones to be the remains of a cannibal feast. When prehistoric
skeletons are found in the position in which death might have taken
place, the presumption is that the people of that time abandoned
their dead as animals would. If on the other hand a skeleton lies
intact with its arms carefully folded, there is little room for doubt that
the men of the time had progressed to the point where the survivors
put away their dead; in other words, that human burial had been
instituted, and that accordingly at least some rude form of society
was in existence. When, perhaps from a still later period, a skeleton
is found with red paint adhering to the bones, although these lie in
their natural places, the only conclusion to be drawn is that the dead
body was coated with pigment before being interred and that as the
soft tissues wasted away the red ocher came to adhere to the bones.
In this case the painting was evidently part of a rite performed over
the dead.
66. Stone and Metals

The cultural record of man’s existence is divided into two great
periods. In the latter of these, in which we are still living, metals were
used; in the earlier, metals were unknown and tools made of stone.
Hence the terms “Age of Stone” and “Age of Metals.” The duration of
these two main periods is unequal. Metals were first used in Asia
and Egypt about 4,000 B.C. and in Europe about 3,000 B.C.—say
five to six thousand years ago. The most conservative authorities,
however, would allow forty or fifty thousand years for the Stone Age;
while others make it cover a quarter million. The assumption, which
is here followed, of the intermediate figure of a hundred thousand
years gives the Stone Age a duration twenty times as long as the
Age of Metals. When one remembers that hand in hand with metals
came the art of writing and an infinite variety of inventions, it is clear
that larger additions have been made to human civilization in the
comparatively brief period of metals than in the tremendously longer
time that preceded it. Progress in the Stone Age was not only slow,
but the farther back one peers into this age, the more lagging does
the evolution of human culture seem to have been. One can
definitely recognize a tendency toward the acceleration of evolution:
the farther advancement has got the faster it moves.
The Age of Metals is subdivided into the Iron Age, which begins
some three thousand years ago, say about 1,500-1,000 B.C.; and an
earlier Bronze Age. In the Bronze Age one must distinguish first a
period in which native copper was employed in some parts of the
world; after which comes an era in which it had been learned that
copper melted with a proportion of about one-tenth tin, thus
producing bronze, was a superior material. Within the past five
thousand years or so, accordingly, there are recognized successively
the ages of copper, of bronze, and of iron.
Broadly speaking, these five thousand years are also the historic
period. Not that there exist historic records going back so far as this
for every people. But the earliest preserved documents that the
historian uses, the written monuments of Egypt and Babylonia, are
about five thousand years old. The Age of Metals thus corresponds
approximately with the period of History; the Stone Age, with
Prehistory.
67. The Old and the New Stone Ages

The Stone Age, apart from a rather doubtful introductory era to be
mentioned presently, is customarily divided into two periods, the Old
Stone Age and the New Stone Age,—the Palæolithic and the
Neolithic. These words of Greek origin mean literally “old stone” and
“new stone” periods. The criterion by which these two grand
divisions were originally distinguished was that in the Palæolithic
artifacts were made only by chipping, that is, some process of
fracturing stone, whereas Neolithic stone objects were thought to
have been pecked, ground, rubbed, and polished. Indeed the two
periods have sometimes been designated as the epochs of rough
stone and polished stone implements.
This distinction is now known to be inaccurate. It is true that the
Old Stone Age did not yet employ frictional processes in shaping
stone and confined itself to the older methods of fracturing by blows
or pressure. But the converse is not true, that the Neolithic worked
stone only by grinding, nor even that grinding was its characteristic
process. Stone grinding was invented only toward the middle of the
New Stone Age—in what is perhaps best designated the “Full
Neolithic.” The Early Neolithic, which lasted half the total Neolithic
duration, continued to work stone by fracture. What marked the
beginning of the Neolithic was certain inventions having nothing to
do with stone: notably pottery and the bow. With these available,
human life took on a new color, and it was not until some thousands
of years later that shaping of stone by grinding came into use. In
other words, the prehistorians’ idea as to what constitutes the
Neolithic have changed, and they no longer put stone processes in
the first place in characterizing the period. They would do well,
therefore, to change its name also to one having reference to its
more specific traits. Such a change of designation will perhaps
become established in time. But at present the term Neolithic is so
intrenched in usage, that to replace it by “Pottery Age” or “Bow Age”
would be misleading: all the literature on the subject employs
“Neolithic.” The present chapter being concerned specifically with the
Palæolithic, and this being an age in which stone implements did
loom large and were consistently made by fracture only, the
difficulties about the concept of the Neolithic, and its subdivision into
an Early and a Full period, can be reserved for discussion later
(Chapter XIV). But it is well to bear in mind as the Palæolithic is
examined in the pages immediately following, that the Neolithic is
neither its antithesis nor its logical complement, but rather a period
signalized by the appearance of totally new directions of human
culture.
Another point in connection with the two processes of working
stone has reference to the mental activities involved by them. A
tolerable ground ax or mortar can be made without much difficulty by
any one willing to take the trouble. A civilized person entirely
inexperienced in the working of stone would be likely to produce a
fairly satisfactory implement by the rubbing technique. If however he
attempted to manufacture a chipped stone tool, even of simple type,
he would probably fail repeatedly before learning to control the
method well enough to turn out an implement without first ruining a
dozen. In short, the manual dexterity required to produce the best
forms of chipped stone tools is greater than that needed for ground
ones. Inasmuch as the chipping process is, however, the earlier, we
are confronted here with a paradox.
Yet the paradox is only on the surface. It is true that so far as skill
alone is concerned a good chipped tool is more difficult to make than
a ground one. But it can be made in a shorter time. A rough stone
tool can be manufactured in a few minutes. A good artifact may be
preceded by a number of unsuccessful attempts or “rejects,” and yet
be produced in an hour or less. The processes of pecking, grinding,
and polishing, on the other hand, are laborious. They are slow even
when pursued with steel tools, and when the shaping material is no
better than another stone or sand, as was of course always the case
in prehistoric times, the duration of the labor must have been
discouraging. Weeks or at least days would be required to
manufacture a single implement. If the work was done at odd times,
one may imagine that many a stone ax was months in being
produced. Patience and forethought of a rather high order are thus
involved in the making of implements of the Neolithic type. Dexterity
is replaced by higher qualities of what might be called the moral
order. By comparison, the earliest men lacked these traits. They
would not sit down to-day to commence something that would not be
available for use until a month later. What they wanted they wanted
quickly. To think ahead, to sacrifice present convenience to future
advantage, must have been foreign to their way of life. Therefore
they chipped; and although in the lapse of thousands of years they
learned to do some chipping of high quality, they continued to
operate with modifications of the same rough and rapid process. The
uses to which their implements could be put were also
correspondingly restricted. A first-class ax, a real chisel, or a mortar
in which grinding can be done, can scarcely be made by chipping
alone. It was not until men had learned to restrain their childish
impulse to work only for the immediate purpose, and had acquired
an increased self-control and discipline, that the grinding of stone
came into use.
One principle must be clearly adhered to in the dating or proper
arrangement of the periods of prehistoric time: the principle that it is
always the highest types of implements which determine the age of a
deposit. Lower forms often persist from the earlier periods into the
later, alongside the newly invented higher types. The men of the Full
Neolithic time did not wholly give up making chipped implements
because they also ground stone. Just so we have not discarded the
use of stone because we use metals, and we still employ copper for
a great variety of purposes although we live in an age of which iron
and steel are characteristic. To reckon a people as Palæolithic
because they had chipped implements as well as ground ones,
would be as misleading as to assert that we still belong to the Stone
Age because we build houses of granite. In fact, stone masonry has
had its principal development since metals have been in use.
This caution seems elementary enough. But it has sometimes
been overlooked by scholars in the pursuit of a theory that made
them try to stamp some prehistoric or savage race as particularly
primitive. If in a stratum of ancient remains there are discovered a
thousand chipped artifacts and only ten that are ground or polished
but the latter unquestionably left there at the same time as the
thousand chipped ones, one is justified in reckoning the whole
deposit as Full Neolithic in period. For in such a case it is clear that
the art of grinding must have been already known, even though it
may as yet have been practised only occasionally.
It is found that all surviving peoples of primitive culture—American
Indians, Australian black-fellows, Polynesians, Hottentots, and the
like—except probably the Tasmanians, have attained the grinding
stage of development. It is true enough that many American Indian
tribes chipped arrow-points and knives more frequently than they
would grind out axes. Yet without exception they also knew the
process of grinding stone and applied it to some purpose. For this
reason the endeavors that have been made by certain authors, who
compare particular modern savage peoples to the races of
prehistoric Europe on the basis of a similarity of their chipped
implements, are misleading. It is true that tools like those produced
in the Mousterian period of the Old Stone Age are made by the
modern Australian tribes, and that certain Magdalenian implements
from near the end of the Old Stone Age find parallels among those of
the Eskimo. But both the Australians and the Eskimo practise the art
of rubbing and polishing of stone, which was unknown in the
Palæolithic. They therefore belong clearly to a later stage of
civilization. Too great an insistence on such parallels would be likely
to give rise to the implication that the Australians were a species of
belated Mousterian Stone Age men, and the Eskimo only
Magdalenians whom the Arctic regions had somehow perpetuated
for ten thousand years; whereas their civilizations consist of
Mousterian and Magdalenian ingredients plus many subsequent
elements. The stage of development of the art of chipping in stone
may be the same; the other arts and customs of modern Australian
black-fellows and of Eskimos, and their bodily types, differ from
those of the prehistoric Europeans.
With the distinction of the Palæolithic, Neolithic, and the Ages of
Copper, Bronze, and Iron in mind, it is in order to examine what may
have preceded them, and then to trace in outline the development
which human culture underwent during the Palæolithic in the
continent in which its records are best explored—Europe.
68. The Eolithic Age

The earliest of all periods of human handiwork, although a
somewhat doubtful one, is the Eolithic, or age of the “dawn of stone”
implements.
On purely theoretical grounds it appears likely, indeed almost
inevitable, that the first definitely chipped implements did not develop
full-fledged, but were preceded by still cruder tools, made perhaps
without clear intent, and at any rate so rough and half-shaped that
they would be difficult to recognize.
After the evolution of Palæolithic implements had become pretty
well known, this conjecture began to be supported by evidence, or at
least by alleged evidence. Investigators, especially Rutot in Belgium,
found flints of which it was difficult to say whether or not they had
been used by human hands. These pieces occurred in extremely
ancient deposits. On the basis of these discoveries Rutot and his
followers established the Eolithic period. Some have consistently
assailed this Eolithic age as imaginary, asserting that the so-called
eoliths were nothing but accidental products of nature. Others have
accepted the eoliths and recognize the stage of embryonic or pre-
human civilization which they imply. Still other students remain in
doubt; and their attitude is perhaps still the safest to share.
The view now most prevalent is that the alleged Eolithic flints may
have been used by early human hands, but that they were almost
certainly not manufactured. This would make them tools only in the
sense in which the limb of a tree is a tool when a man in distress
seizes it to defend himself.
The eoliths are more or less irregular pieces of flint or similar
stone, some of them so blunt that they must have been very
inefficient if used for chopping or cutting or scraping. Small nocks or
chips along the edge are believed not to have been flaked off with
the conscious intent of producing an edge, but to have become
chipped away through usage while the stone was being manipulated
as a naturally formed tool. This would be much in line with our
picking up a cobblestone in default of an ax or hammer, and
continuing to maul away with it until the rough handling broke off
several pieces and happened accidentally to produce an edge. That
the eoliths were such unintentionally made tools is the most that can
safely be claimed for them.
Even so some doubts remain. Stones similar to eoliths in every
respect, except that their fractures show a fresher appearance, have
been taken by dozens out of modern steel drums in which flint-
bearing chalk was being broken for industrial purposes.
Then, too, the first believers in the authenticity of the eoliths
reported them as occurring from the middle and earlier layers of the
Pleistocene, in which periods we know that nearly human or half-
human types like Heidelberg man and Pithecanthropus were already
in existence. These two species being more similar to modern man
than to the apes or other animals, we must imagine them to have
been gifted with at least some human intelligence. It would therefore
have been entirely possible for them to supplement the tools with
which nature endowed them—their hands and teeth—with flints
which they picked up and manipulated in one useful way or another
without particularly troubling to shape the stones.
So far the argument is all in favor of the reality of the eolith. Before
long, however, it was discovered that eoliths were not especially
more abundant in the middle Pleistocene just previous to the
opening of the Palæolithic, when we should expect them to have
been most numerous, than they were in the early Pleistocene, when
the human species must still have been most rudimentary. Then it
was found that eoliths occur in lower strata than the earliest
Pleistocene, namely, in the Pliocene, in the Miocene, and perhaps
even earlier, in the Oligocene. Yet these periods are divisions of the
Tertiary, or Age of Mammals—the age before man had been
evolved! In short, the argument cuts too far. Once one begins to
accept eoliths it is difficult to stop accepting them without carrying
them back into a period of geological history when evolution could
scarcely have produced a form sufficiently advanced in intelligence
to use them.[8]
Perhaps on the whole the strongest argument in favor of the
authenticity of the Pleistocene eoliths is the fact that the first
implements known positively to belong to the Old Stone Age are just
a little too well shaped and efficient to represent the products of the
very beginnings of human manual dexterity. One cannot help but
look for something antecedent that was simpler and ruder; and this
need of the imagination the eoliths do go a long way to satisfy.
69. The Palæolithic Age: Duration, Climate,

Animals
With the Eolithic period passed and the Palæolithic entered, our
history of incipient human culture is on a solid foundation, especially
so far as western Europe, the best explored region, is concerned.
The general relation of this Old Stone Age in geological time may be
defined as follows. The Quaternary, whose duration may be
estimated to have been about a million years, is subdivided into the
Pleistocene and the Recent. Of the two, the Recent is very much
shorter than the Pleistocene. Broadly speaking, from ninety-eight to
ninety-nine per cent of the total duration of the Quaternary was
occupied by the Pleistocene. The small remainder which the
geologist calls “Recent,” corresponds to those periods which the
archæologist and the historian name the New Stone and Metal Ages;
say the past ten thousand years. The Old Stone Age therefore falls
in the Pleistocene. But it occupies only the later duration of the
Pleistocene; the earlier part of the Pleistocene is barren of tools or
other records of human culture, except so far as the eoliths may be
so considered.
The proportion of the Pleistocene which is covered by the Old
Stone Age is variously estimated. Some geologists will not allow the
undisputed Palæolithic to have extended over more than the last
tenth of the Pleistocene: the rivers have not changed their beds
enough to permit the assumption of a longer period. This allowance
would give the Palæolithic a duration of perhaps a hundred thousand
years, which is the figure here followed. Those who place the
beginning of the European Palæolithic in the second instead of the
third interglacial period, would have to admit a considerably longer
duration.
The geologist, because he deals with such enormous durations,
has to operate on a broad-gauge scale, and usually disdains to
commit himself to close estimates of years. To measure the lapse of
time within the Pleistocene, he has found it most useful to avail
himself of the evidences left by the great glaciers which repeatedly
covered parts of several continents during the Pleistocene, and he
has therefore given this period its popular name of “glacial epoch.”
These glaciations must be imagined as having occurred on a much
larger scale than one might at first infer from the shrunken remnants
of the glaciers that persist in the Alps and other mountains. The
Pleistocene glaciers were vast sheets, hundreds of feet in thickness,
sliding uniformly over valleys, hills, and mountains except for an
occasional high peak. Modern Greenland, which except at the edges
is buried under a solid ice cap, evidently presents a pretty fair picture
of what the northern parts of Europe and North America repeatedly
looked like during the Pleistocene.
Four such glaciations, or periods of maximum extent of the
continental ice, have been distinguished, and more or less
correlated, in Europe and North America. In Europe they have been
designated as the Günz, Mindel, Riss, and Würm glaciations
respectively (Fig. 5). Each of these is the name of a locality in the
Alps at which typical moraines or erosions produced by the ice of
that period have been carefully observed.
Between these four successive advances of the ice sheets there
fell more temperate eras, some of them rather arid, and others moist
and almost tropical even in the latitude of Europe. These mild
intervals are known as the interglacial periods. That Europe was free
from ice during these interglacial periods is shown not only by facts
of a purely geological nature but by the occurrence in these periods
of fossils of a semi-tropical fauna which included elephants,
rhinoceroses, lions, and the like.
Coming now to a consideration of the relation of man to these ice
eras, we find that the first, second, and probably the third glaciations
passed without leaving sure evidence of manufactured stone
implements. In the last interglacial period, that which falls between
the Riss and the Würm glaciations, the so-called “Chellean picks”
appear; and from then on the record of artifacts is a continuous one.
Considerable parts of Europe remained habitable all through the

Textbook Marine Pollution and Climate Change 1St Edition Andres Hugo Arias Ebook All Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Textbook Marine Pollution and Climate Change 1St Edition Andres Hugo Arias Ebook All Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Document Information

Original Title

Copyright

Available Formats

Share this document

Share or Embed Document

Sharing Options

Did you find this document useful?

Is this content inappropriate?

Copyright:

Available Formats

Textbook Marine Pollution and Climate Change 1St Edition Andres Hugo Arias Ebook All Chapter PDF

Uploaded by

Copyright:

Available Formats

Marine Pollution and Climate Change

1st Edition Andrés Hugo Arias

Coastal and Deep Ocean Pollution 1st Edition Andres

Marine geochemistry : ocean circulation, carbon cycle

Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics: From Air Pollution

Theology and Climate Change 1st Edition Tyson

Renewable Energy and Climate Change Quaschning

Climate Change and Public Health 1st Edition Barry Levy

Climate Change and Extreme Events 1st Edition Ali Fares

Handbook of Climate Change Communication: Vol. 2:

No claim to original U.S. Government works

Printed on acid-free paper

International Standard Book Number-13: 978-1-4987-4799-8

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Names: Arias, Andrâes Hugo, editor. | Marcovecchio, Jorge Eduardo, editor.

Visit the Taylor & Francis Web site at

and the CRC Press Web site at

As stated by the IPCC, human influence on the climate system is clear,

October 2016 Editors

9. Globalization of the Antarctic seas: Pollution and 237

The role of the oceans in the present day

How ancient are the “Ancient Oceans”…???

parameters influence the climate, the sea-ice distribution, the vertical

First Scenario: The Archaean Ocean

During the first stages of Earth planet consolidation (i.e., Precambrian)

and silicon isotope compositions of cherts as well as on protein evolution

Great changes of Ocean during Proterozoic (2.5–0.543 Gyr ago)

The Archaean-Proterozoic boundary presumably represents the most

Approximately 2 Gyr ago a significant oxidation of the Earth’s

continental crust was assembled in a rigid (or quasi-rigid) supercontinent.

course of ocean chemistry through the Proterozoic has traditionally been

The late Precambrian and Cambrian world experienced explosive evolution

Secular changes in seawater chemistry also appear to have influenced

animal evolution in Cambrian oceans. If anoxic water masses occurred

Another Paleozoic ocean which deserves to be mentioned and briefly

Environmental conditions in the deep Panthalassic Ocean during the

Figure 1.5. Distribution of Epeireic seas during Paleozoic.

Flooded continental area provides variable, high-nutrient habitat by

After this environmental cataclysm as occurred within the Permian-

A new oceanographical, biogeochemical and biological outlook within

The Phanerozoic has presented secular oscillation in eustatic sea-level with

distributed Cretaceous oceanic climates, indicating a mid-Cretaceous

63. Linguistic and Cultural Standards

64. Rapidity of Linguistic Change

65. Fossils of the Body and of the Mind

66. Stone and Metals

67. The Old and the New Stone Ages

68. The Eolithic Age

69. The Palæolithic Age: Duration, Climate,

You might also like