Leaf waxes also predate climate records from Antarctic ice cores, which go back only about a million years and require a climate that can support ice. One study used leaf waxes to glimpse the climate of a warmer Spain some 15 to 17 million years ago. Another looked at the moisture history of Southwest Africa for the past 3.5 million years.
Bhattacharya began using them while working as a postdoctoral fellow in Tierney’s lab. Five years ago, she and Ran Feng, a coauthor, came up with the idea of
→ Continue reading at Wired - Science