The Ancient Thermometer

Beetles are picky: each species only survives within a narrow temperature range. So the mix of beetle species preserved in a dated layer brackets how warm that summer probably was — a thermometer built from dead insects. Hover the line to read a moment in time, or pick a single species below to see the record built just from the layers it turned up in.

All speciesRove beetleMegasternum obscurumHydrobius fuscipesOchthebius minimusAgabus bipustulatusDyschirius globosusLesteva longoelytrataAnotylus nitidulusSmooth-chested BlackclockPlatystethus arenariusCoelostoma orbiculareEucnecosum brachypterumCrenate Ocellate Rove BeetleAnotylus sculpturatusLesser BlackclockChaetarthria seminulumCalathus melanocephalusOlophrum fuscumBroken-horned Rove BeetleColymbetes fuscusPterostichus strenuusCoal-runnerHydraena ripariaPlatystethus nitens

Shaded band shows the spread across all beetle species present at each point; the line is the average estimated summer maximum. Estimates from fewer samples (thin ends of the record) are noisier.