William Crawford
Smithsonian paleobiologist Brian Huber in 2017 on a deep-sea drilling vessel in the south and southwest waters of Australia studying Earth’s Cretaceous climate.
While the new paper is the most robust study of temperature change to date, it is far from a finished project according to Huber, the museum’s curator of foraminifera (amoeba-like single-cell organisms) who studies microscopic fossil shells to understand environmental conditions during the Cretaceous period, the warmest stretch of the Phanerozoic.
“We all agree that this isn’t the final curve,” Huber said. “Researchers will continue to uncover additional clues about the deep past, which will help revise this curve down the road.”
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