Comment on "deep-Sea temperature and Ice volume changes across the pliocene-pleistocene climate transitions"

Sosdian and Rosenthal (Reports, 17 July 2009, p. 306) used magnesium/calcium ratios in benthic foraminifera from the North Atlantic to reconstruct past bottom-water temperatures. They suggested that both ice volume change and ice-sheet dynamics played important roles during the late Pliocene and mid-Pleistocene climate transitions. We present evidence that their record of deep ocean temperature is not reliable, thus raising doubts about their conclusions. Copyright Science 2010 by the American Association for the Advancement of Science; all rights reserved.