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Multituberculates, a now-extinct rodent-like group not closely related to any modern mammal, were the most successful group of mammals in the Mesozoic, and they reached peak diversity in the early Paleocene. During this time, multituberculate taxa had a wide range of dental complexity, which correlates to a broader range in diet for the group ...
During the Permian all the Earth's major land masses, except portions of East Asia, were collected into a single supercontinent known as Pangaea. Pangaea straddled the equator and extended toward the poles, with a corresponding effect on ocean currents in the single great ocean ( Panthalassa , the universal sea ), and the Paleo-Tethys Ocean , a ...
Throughout Earth's climate history (Paleoclimate) its climate has fluctuated between two primary states: greenhouse and icehouse Earth. [1] Both climate states last for millions of years and should not be confused with the much smaller glacial and interglacial periods, which occur as alternating phases within an icehouse period (known as an ice age) and tend to last less than one million years ...
The Paleocene is the first series/epoch of the Paleogene and lasted from 66.0 Ma to 56.0 Ma. It is divided into three stages: the Danian 66.0 - 61.6 Ma; Selandian 61.6 - 59.2 Ma; and, Thanetian 59.2 - 56.0 Ma. [13] The GSSP for the base of the Cenozoic, Paleogene and Paleocene is at Oued Djerfane, west of El Kef, Tunisia.
In any case, significant terrestrial ice sheets and sea-ice did not exist during the late Paleocene through early Eocene. [13] Earth surface temperatures gradually increased by about 6 °C from the late Paleocene through the early Eocene. [13] Superimposed on this long-term, gradual warming were at least three (and probably more) "hyperthermals".
The hottest part of the last greenhouse earth was the Late Paleocene - Early Eocene. This was a hothouse period that lasted from 65 to 55 million years ago. The hottest part of this torrid age was the Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum, 55.5 million years ago. Average global temperatures were around 30 °C (86 °F). [14]
The Miocene (/ ˈ m aɪ. ə s iː n,-oʊ-/ MY-ə-seen, -oh-) [6] [7] is the first geological epoch of the Neogene Period and extends from about (Ma). The Miocene was named by Scottish geologist Charles Lyell; the name comes from the Greek words μείων (meíōn, "less") and καινός (kainós, "new") [8] [9] and means "less recent" because it has 18% fewer modern marine invertebrates ...
Because this ice age terminated only slightly before the rapid diversification of life during the Cambrian explosion, it has been proposed that this ice age (or at least its end) created conditions favorable to evolution. The earlier Sturtian glacial maxima (~730 million years) may also have been a snowball Earth event though this is unproven.