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Chapter 18

Chapter 18. The Paleogene World. Guiding Questions. Would life in the Paleogene seas have looked familiar to modern humans? Would terrestrial vegetation of the Paleogene Period also have looked familiar to us?

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Chapter 18

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  1. Chapter 18 The Paleogene World

  2. Guiding Questions • Would life in the Paleogene seas have looked familiar to modern humans? • Would terrestrial vegetation of the Paleogene Period also have looked familiar to us? • How similar were terrestrial vertebrate animals of the Paleocene Epoch to those of the present world? • What climatic conditions characterized by the Early Eocene world?

  3. 23 Million years 65 Million years

  4. Paleogene Life • Paleogene • Paleocene • Eocene • Oligocene

  5. Paleogene Life • Recovery from Cretaceous extinctions • Modern life forms • New animals • Whales • Sharks

  6. Paleogene Life • Sandy coasts offer new niches • Sand dollars evolved from sea biscuits • Flowering plants expanded • Grasses originated

  7. Paleogene Life • Mammals diversified • Most modern orders present by Early Eocene

  8. Paleogene Life • Bats present by early Eocene

  9. Paleogene Life • Primates evolved in Paleogene • Climbing by Early Eocene

  10. Paleogene Life • Mammalian carnivores evolved by mid-Paleogene

  11. Paleogene Life • Earliest horses by end of Paleocene • Size of small dogs

  12. Paleogene Life • Mammalian species doubled • Ungulates • Odd-toed • Horses, tapirs, rhinos • Even-toed • Cloven-hoofed goats, sheep, pigs, cattle

  13. Paleogene Life • Early Eocene elephants • Moeritherium • Earliest • Pig sized

  14. Paleogene Life • Mesonychids • Doglike • Size of small bears • Diatrymas • Huge flightless birds • Clawed feet and slicing beaks

  15. Paleogene Life • Few birds with flight • Most waded • No songbirds

  16. Paleogene Life • Oligocene mammals • A few horses in North America • Rhinoceroses • Paraceratherium • Largest land mammal of all time

  17. Paleogene Life • Brontotheres • Rhino-like

  18. Paleogene Life • Carnivores evolved in Eocene • Saber tooth tiger • Bearlike dogs • Wolflike animals

  19. Paleogene Life • Primates modernized in Oligocene • Monkeys • Apelike primates • Aegyptopithecus

  20. Paleogeography • Continents were in modern configuration but closer together • Early Paleogene • Warm climate • Later cooled

  21. Paleogene Thermal Maximum • Very warm interval of Paleogene • Abrupt shift in oxygen isotope ratios in planktonic and benthic organisms • Rapid temperature increase • Antarctic waters warmed to 18°C in 3000 years • Carbon isotopes shift to low levels • Melting of frozen methane

  22. Paleogene Thermal Maximum • Also reflected in the flora and fauna • Green River Basin flora shifted • Mammals migrated • Bering Strait • Followed by Eocene ice age

  23. Tectonic Events • Cordilleran region • Laramide orogeny • New tectonic style

  24. Laramide Orogeny • Northern segment • Active igneous activity • Active fold and thrust belt inland • Quiescent from Great Valley to Colorado Plateau • Low angle of subduction

  25. Laramide Orogeny • Thrust sheets exposed in Rockies

  26. Laramide Orogeny • Olympic Range began to form

  27. Laramide Orogeny • Basins form on eastern belt of uplifts • Anticline uplifts

  28. Laramide Orogeny • Easternmost uplift formed Black Hills

  29. Laramide Orogeny • Front Range of the Rocky Mountains • High elevation • Some from post- Laramide uplift • Erosion kept pace with uplift • Broad erosional surface

  30. Laramide Orogeny • Yellowstone hot spot • Buried trees in lavas • Over 20 successive forests buried

  31. Gulf of Mexico • Mississippi Embayment • Thick Eocene segments • Oligocene regression • Clastic wedge • Important petroleum resource

  32. Chesapeake Bay • Largest estuary in the world • Rubble found just below 36 M year old fossils • Sits within circular depression • Impact crater • Shocked grains

  33. Chesapeake Bay • Toms Canyon • Created by meteor • Associated with tidal wave and microspherules

  34. Chesapeake Bay • Seismic profiling reveals basin in-filled with breccia • Faults create geologic hazard

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