Temperature oscillations over the last 10,000 years in western Europe estimated from terrestrial mollusc assemblages

Snail assemblages are used to estimate February and August temperatures during the past 10,000 years in western Europe. We find that a strong warming occurred after the Younger Dryas event, followed by several rapid cooling and warming events. These observations are in agreement with insect and pollen proxy data from the European continent and with estimates of sea-surface temperature from the North Atlantic Ocean as well as with fluctuations of glaciers in western Norway. This study also confirms that terrestrial molluscs can provide reliable climatic data in conjunction with other proxy data.