The Eocene-Oligocene Transition: Paradise LostAfter a decade of new findings and interpretation based on innovative techniques during the 1980s, archaeologists were pretty sure that 38 million years ago the earth still basked in a subtropical "greenhouse" that had lasted since the age of dinosaurs, but 5 million years later there were glaciers in the Antarctic, signalling the beginning of the "icehouse" state that we know now. Here is a summary of the present understanding of the climatic and biological changes, for nonspecialists who have some familiarity with the terms and concepts of archaeology. Paper edition (08091-3), $24. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR |
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abundant animals Antarctic Antarctica anthracotheres artiodactyls Asia Australia Badlands Basin Berggren bottom waters Bridgerian brontotheres carnivorans Cenozoic Chadronian changes Chron circulation climatic continents cooling correlation creodonts Cretaceous deep deposits diversity Duchesnean earliest Oligocene early Eocene early Oligocene entelodonts Eocene and Oligocene Eocene transition Eocene-Oligocene transition Eocene/Oligocene boundary Europe evidence Evolution faunas figure floras foraminiferans forests Formation fossils Geological Society glaciation glauconite global greenhouse Hyaenodon ice sheets impact isotopic Keller Kennett known land mammal ages late Eocene late Oligocene Lyell's magnetic marine mass extinctions mean annual temperature mesonychids microfossils microtektites mid-Oligocene middle Eocene Miller million years ago Miocene modern molluscs North America Orellan oxygen isotope palaeotheres Paleocene paleontologists pantodonts Paraceratherium perissodactyls planktonic plants polar primitive region rhinos rocks rodents scale sea level sediments sequence South species stratigraphic suggested taeniodonts teeth Terminal Eocene Event terrestrial Tethyan Tethys tillodonts tropical U.S. Gulf Coast Uintan uintatheres Uplift volcanic warm whales Whitneyan Wolfe Wyoming