E-Mail IMAGE: Transmission electron microscope images of magnetofossils with examples of cuboctahedra (top center, rounded) and elongated prisms (bottom center, square). view more Credit: Courtney Wagner/University of Utah Fifty-six million years ago, as the Earth's climate warmed by five to eight degrees C, new land mammals evolved, tropical forests expanded, giant insects and reptiles appeared and the chemistry of the ocean changed. Through it all, bacteria in the ocean in what is now New Jersey kept a record of the changes in their environment through forming tiny magnetic particles. Now, those particles and their record are all that's left of these microorganisms. Thanks to new research tools, that record is finally being read.