title: Early Miocene elevation in northern Tibet estimated by palaeobotanical evidence.
abstract: The area and elevation of the Tibetan Plateau over time has directly affected Asia's topography, the characteristics of the Asian monsoon, and modified global climate, but in ways that are poorly understood. Charting the uplift history is crucial for understanding the mechanisms that link elevation and climate irrespective of time and place. While some palaeoelevation data are available for southern and central Tibet, clues to the uplift history of northern Tibet remain sparse and largely circumstantial. Leaf fossils are extremely rare in Tibet but here we report a newly discovered early Miocene barberry (Berberis) from Wudaoliang in the Hoh-Xil Basin in northern Tibet, at a present altitude of 4611 ± 9 m. Considering the fossil and its nearest living species probably occupied a similar or identical environmental niche, the palaeoelevation of the fossil locality, corrected for Miocene global temperature difference, is estimated to have been between 1395 and 2931 m, which means this basin has been uplifted ~2-3 km in the last 17 million years. Our findings contradict hypotheses that suggest northern Tibet had reached or exceeded its present elevation prior to the Miocene.
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China [2] University of Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100039, China.
authors.forename: Bin
authors.initials: B
authors.lastname: Sun
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Yu-Fei
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Cheng-Sen
authors.initials: CS
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Jian
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Yang
authors.affiliation: State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China.
authors.forename: Jin-Feng
authors.initials: JF
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China [2] Henan University of Traditional Chinese Medicine, No.1 Jinshui Road, Zhengzhou, Henan, 450008, China.
authors.forename: Ye-Liang
authors.initials: YL
authors.lastname: Li
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
authors.forename: Tao
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Deng
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
authors.forename: Shi-Qi
authors.initials: SQ
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.affiliation: Key Laboratory of Vertebrate Evolution and Human Origins, Institute of Vertebrate Palaeontology and Palaeoanthropology, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100044, China.
authors.forename: Min
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China [2] Environment, Earth and Ecosystems, Centre for Earth, Planetary, Space and Astronomical Research, The Open University, Milton Keynes, MK7 6AA, UK.
authors.forename: Robert A
authors.initials: RA
authors.lastname: Spicer
authors.affiliation: 1] State Key Laboratory of Systematic and Evolutionary Botany, Institute of Botany, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing 100093, China [2] Department of Palaeontology, University of Vienna, Althanstrasse 14, A-1090 Vienna, Austria.
authors.forename: David K
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Ferguson
authors.affiliation: Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, 53 University Road, Lucknow 226007, India.
authors.forename: Rakesh C
authors.initials: RC
authors.lastname: Mehrotra
mesh_terms: D000531:Altitude; D028142:Berberis / Q000502:physiology*; D002980:Climate; D004777:Environment; D005580:Fossils; D005843:Geography; D010802:Phylogeny; D018515:Plant Leaves / Q000502:physiology*; D018521:Plant Physiological Phenomena; D013696:Temperature; D018609:Tibet