PT6 · S2 · Q12 By dating fossils of pollen

This allows us to say that the reason the insect / pollen predictions diverge is that the insect record prediction is misleading. If cold-weather beetles can be mistaken for warm-weather beetles, the insect record may falsely suggest warm climate appeared earlier than it actually did. The pollen record could then be the accurate one.

This explains the discrepancy by giving us a reason to think that insects come back before pollen does, which is why the insect record has evidence of an earlier warming date than the pollen record does. If beetles arrive in a new environment faster than warm-weather plants do, the insect record will register warm conditions before the pollen record does, even if both records are accurate.

This is essentially a corollary of (B). This explains the discrepancy by giving us a reason to think that beetles come back before pollen does, which is why the beetle record has evidence of an earlier warming date than the pollen record does. Beetles could potentially predate the arrival of plants and plant-eating insects because they can scavenge If beetles arrive in a new environment faster than warm-weather plants do, the insect record will register warm conditions before the pollen record does, even if both records are accurate.

This is the corollary to (A). This allows us to say that the reason the insect / pollen predictions diverge is that the pollen record prediction is misleading. If researchers can mistake a gap in the pollen record as evidence of no new growth, they might have seen such a gap this area and mistakenly thought there wasn't new growth yet. If the pollen record in this case doesn't realize just how early plants really did start re-growing in the post glacial area, then its later date of warming could be incorrect while the beetle record's date is correct.