Carlos Jaramillo
The history of the tropics is one of radical change. It transformed from a place without a single flowering plant 120 million years ago to an ecosystem completely dominated by flowering plants today.
Comment (1) on “Formation of the Isthmus of Panama” by O’Dea et al., 2017
Miocene Floodings of Amazonia, 2017
Based on clues ranging from microscopic pollen samples to massive petrified trees and larger-than-life-sized turtle and crocodile fossils, my lab pieces together millions of years of evidence to reconstruct the deep-time history of tropical ecosystems. I help to build international networks of collaborators to take on huge projects such as the excavations in the Panama Canal expansion earthworks, which shed light on the formation of the Panama land bridge between North and South America. We also work in one of the world’s largest coal mines in Cerrejón, Colombia, that led to the discovery of oldest tropical rainforest that developed about 60 million years ago. The fauna of Cerrejón contains large animals including the biggest terrestrial snake species known to date, Titanoboa cerrejonensis, as well as large crocodiles. Our research provides vital perspective as we strive to understand how modern tropical ecosystems work and to predict how they will respond to future environmental change.
Does deep-time climate change predict the future of tropical forests?
In response to elevated atmospheric carbon and temperature, the world's oldest fossilized tropical forests increased their biomass and species diversity. The fossil record shows that today's plants probably have the genetic capacity to acclimatize to climate change.
Why are there so many species in the tropics? How is the latitudinal diversity gradient explained?
An old question that still does not have a clear answer. The answer, nevertheless, requires the fossil record.
Can we develop new techniques to analyze biostratigraphic data? How can we use fossils to find natural resources such as oil, coal, gas and water?
The exploration of groundwater, oil, gas, coal and many other minerals requires of good stratigraphic correlations and an understanding of depositional environments. Fossils are very useful tools for geologists to solve those problems.
University of Florida 1999 Ph.D. Geology, Botany
University of Missouri-Rolla 1995 M.S. Geology
Universidad Nacional de Colombia 1992 Geology
Jaramillo, C., 2016, Evolution of the Isthmus of Panama: biological, paleoceanographic, and paleoclimatological implications, in Hoorn, C., and Antonelli, A., eds., Mountains, Climate and Biodiversity: Oxford, John Wiley & Sons.
Jaramillo, C., and Cardenas, A. 2013. Global Warming and Neotropical Rainforests: A historical perspective. Annual Reviews of Earth and Planetary Sciences 41: 741-766.
Jaramillo, C. 2012. Historia Geológica del Bosque Húmedo Neotropical. Revista de la Academia Colombiana de Ciencias Exactas, Físicas y Naturales 36: 59-80.
Jaramillo, C., Rueda, M., and Torres, V. 2011. A Palynological Zonation for the Cenozoic of the Llanos and Llanos Foothills of Colombia. Palynology 35: 46-84.
Jaramillo, C., et al. 2010. Effects of Rapid Global Warming at the Paleocene-Eocene Boundary on Neotropical Vegetation: Science 330: 957-961.
Jaramillo, C., Hoorn, C., Silva, S., Leite, F., Herrera, F., Quiroz, L., Dino, R., and Antonioli, L. 2010. The origin of the modern Amazon rainforest: implications from the palynological and paleobotanical record. In: Hoorn, M.C. and Wesselingh, F.P. (Eds.) Amazonia, Landscape and Species Evolution. Blackwell, Oxford: 317-334.
Jaramillo, C., Rueda, M. and Mora, G. 2006. Cenozoic Plant Diversity in the Neotropics. Science, 311: 1893-1896.
