Pole to Equator Temperature Gradient for Coniacian Time, Late Cretaceous: Oxygen and Carbon Isotopic Data on the Koryak Upland and Hokkaido

The purpose of this study was to estimate the Coniacian latitudinal thermal gradient in the Northern Hemisphere. Both hemipelagic (ammonoids) and benthic (brachiopods and bivalves) δ 18O and δ 13C records were used. They originated from Coniacian shallow-water sequences across a wide range of paleolatitudes, from the Koryak upland (northern Kamchatka, Russian Far East) in the north, to Hokkaido (Japan) in the south. Among Coniacian ammonoids, both migrants from Hokkaido living in high latitudes (Kamchatka) and endemic forms dwelling in middle-low latitudes (Hokkaido) indicate seemingly close optimal growth temperatures. Nevertheless, certain differences in climatic conditions, prevailing during high-latitude coldest seasons, undoubtedly provoked growth cessation in some groups of ammonites. Our isotopic study suggests latitudinal temperature changes of only 0.12 °C per degree of latitude for the Northern Hemisphere in Coniacian times, while the average annual temperature in North Kamchatka seems about 3.3 °C lower than that in Hokkaido.