Our group has just published a paper, with the research headed by Alex Wheeler, in Evolving Earth (https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eve.2026.100156) on the palaeoecology of an area in Laurasia.
This is the fourth paper on our efforts to unravel the paleoclimate, paleovegetation and paleoecology of the Early Cretaceous in the Central Asian region*.
We still haven’t found any angiosperms. We know they are in the region; we know they are in many different settings at this time but they are just not detected yet in the paleomire flora – maybe they are there but not well preserved as tissue or with pollen. In papers to come out next year we will address this.
But what we are finding, as discussed in this paper, is that although there is significant climate variation over 40 m years in the region, for the most part it was warm with some oscillations between wetter and drier periods.
That is a long time. But not unprecedented. Look at the mires in eastern Kalimantan (Borneo) from the Eocene to the modern – they all record warm and wet climate – over 40 million years. If you want to learn more, get the paper.
Cross section through the studied Early Cretaceous palaeomires
* Moore, T.A., Moroeng, O.M., Shen, J., Esterle, J.S., Pausch, R.C., 2021. Using carbon isotopes and organic composition to decipher climate and tectonics in the Early Cretaceous: An example from the Hailar Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. Cretaceous Research 118, 104674, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cretres.2020.104674, 25 pp.
Moroeng, O.M., Moore, T.A., Shen, J., Esterle, J.S., Liu, J., 2025. Isotopic and petrographic implications for fire type, temperature and formation of degradosemifusinite in fusain layers from an Early Cretaceous coal bed, Hailar Basin, Inner Mongolia, China. Fuel 384, 133895, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.fuel.2024.133895.
Wheeler, A., Moore, T.A., Shen, J., Moroeng, O.M., 2026. Palynofloral and carbon isotopic patterns of an Early Cretaceous peat mire in Laurasia: Implications for regional short-versus long-term climate variability. Evolving Earth 4, 100156, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.eve.2026.100156.
Wheeler, A., Shen, J., Moore, T.A., Moroeng, O.M., Liu, J., 2022. Palaeoecology and palaeoclimate of an Early Cretaceous peat mire in East Laurasia (Hailar Basin, Inner Mongolia, China). Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 599, 24 pp., https://doi.org/10.1016/j.palaeo.2022.111050.
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