A team of researchers has made a groundbreaking discovery using dinosaur teeth as “climate time capsules” to unlock secrets of Earth’s ancient greenhouse climate. By analyzing oxygen isotopes in the dental enamel of dinosaur teeth, the scientists have found that concentrations of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere during the Mesozoic Era were far higher than they are today.
The study, published recently in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, used a new innovative method to detect the relative ratios of all three natural oxygen isotopes. The results show that the primary production of plants was double that of current levels, contributing to a climate that was particularly dynamic during the time of dinosaurs.
The researchers investigated dinosaur teeth from North America, Africa, and Europe, dating back to the late Jurassic and Cretaceous periods. They found that certain teeth contained unusual combinations of oxygen isotopes, which may be evidence of peaks in CO2 levels caused by volcanic activity.
This study represents a breakthrough in paleoclimatology, providing new insights into Earth’s past climate dynamics. The researchers’ method offers a new way to study the composition of the atmosphere and vegetation using fossilized tooth enamel, which can also be used to study other vertebrate species.
According to Dr. Dingsu Feng, lead author of the paper, “Our method provides us with completely new insights into Earth’s past… Their teeth recorded the climate more than 150 million years ago—and at last we are able to read that record.”
Source: https://phys.org/news/2025-08-dinosaur-teeth-climate-capsules-secrets.html