Quote:
Originally Posted by cran
The important thing is that we both seem to support a finding of substantially less than 35% (partial pressure) O2 in the Mesozoic ... and that the author seems to have confused the Palaeozoic Carboniferous (high O2; biggest bugs) with the Mesozoic Cretaceous (mostly high sea levels, high temps, biggest critters) ...
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If you take a look at Figure 19 in the
GEOCARBSULF paper, you'll see a plot of Bergman's 2004 model, which spikes up to near 35% in the Cretaceous. Berner has some critiques of Bergman's modelling in that section.
So it's possible the idea of high Cretaceous oxygen comes from either the dodgy old amber data, or Bergman's fairly recent model, or confusion with the Carboniferous. (I did some googling recently concerning Sato's pronouncement on pterosaur wing-loading, and it was interesting how many people seemed to think that pterosaurs and giant dragonflies lived at the same time in the same high-oxygen environment. Frankly, I just despise people who can't keep geological periods straight in their heads.
)
Grant Hutchison