Marine sediments are an important methane reservoir, in particular because of the presence of gas hydrates, solid structures of gas and water. Gas hydrates are stable under certain conditions of temperature and pressure and changes of these conditions can trigger hydrate dissociation with the consequent release of methane. Considering the current increase in sea surface temperature, there is some concern regarding the stability of the gas hydrate reservoir and the potential impact of gas hydrate dissociation on climate. One way to tackle this issue is through the investigation of geological records. In fact, dissociation of gas hydrates and the transfer of marine methane to the active oceanic carbon system has been hypothesized as the cause, and/or a feedback, of climate change episodes in the geological past. However, one of the challenges of conducting these investigations using benthic foraminiferal proxies is the difficulty of placing the results in a precise stratigraphic context. To tackle this issue, we developed a new proxy based on the benthic foraminiferal sulfur isotopic signature (δ³⁴S) as a novel approach to reconstruct the flux (i.e., diffusive vs. advective) and timing of methane emissions in fossil records.  The data collected showed that the benthic foraminiferal δ³⁴S values are lower in the sample characterized by seawater conditions compared to the samples influenced by the presence of past sulphate-methane transition zones (δ³⁴S values of ∼20‰ vs. ∼25–27‰), as supported by bulk benthic foraminiferal δ¹³C data. At the same time, the benthic foraminiferal δ¹⁸O – δ³⁴S correlation provided a new tool to indirect date past methane emission (see figure below from Borrelli et al., 2020).