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Eocene Thermal Maximum 2: 49: Azolla event may have ended a long warm period 5.3–2.6: Pliocene climate became cooler and drier, and seasonal, similar to modern climates. 2.5 to present: Quaternary glaciation, with permanent ice on the polar regions, many named stages in different parts of the world
During the Cenozoic, mammals proliferated from a few small, simple, generalised forms into a diverse collection of terrestrial, marine, and flying animals, giving this period its other name, the Age of Mammals. The Cenozoic is just as much the age of savannas, the age of co-dependent flowering plants and insects, and the age of birds. [40]
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 glaciation of the Arctic in the Northern Hemisphere commenced with Greenland becoming increasingly covered by an ice sheet in late Pliocene (2.9-2.58 Ma ago). By about 3 million years ago, an isthmus had formed between North and South America, joining both continents and preventing oceanic currents to circulate between Pacific and Atlantic ...
Climate history over the past 500 million years, with the last three major ice ages indicated, Andean-Saharan (450 Ma), Karoo (300 Ma) and Late Cenozoic. A less severe cold period or ice age is shown during the Jurassic-Cretaceous (150 Ma). There have been five or six major ice ages in the history of
The Eocene is not only known for containing the warmest period during the Cenozoic; it also marked the decline into an icehouse climate and the rapid expansion of the Antarctic ice sheet. The transition from a warming climate into a cooling climate began at around 49 Ma. Isotopes of carbon and oxygen indicate a shift to a global cooling climate ...
Although various proxies for past atmospheric CO 2 concentrations across the Cenozoic do not agree in absolute terms, all suggest that levels in the early Paleogene before and after the PETM were much higher than at present-day. In any case, significant terrestrial ice sheets and sea-ice did not exist during the late Paleocene through early Eocene.
As instrumental records only span a tiny part of Earth's history, the reconstruction of ancient climate is important to understand natural variation and the evolution of the current climate. Paleoclimatology uses a variety of proxy methods from Earth and life sciences to obtain data previously preserved within rocks , sediments , boreholes ...