Paleogene
Sign in to saveThe Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the first period of the Cenozoic Era, the tenth period of the Phanerozoic and is divided into the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene epochs. The earlier term Tertiary Period was used to define the time now covered by the Paleogene Period and subsequent Neogene Period; despite no longer being recognized as a formal stratigraphic term, "Tertiary" still sometimes remain
AI overview
The Paleogene Period is a 43-million-year span of geological time that began after the extinction of the dinosaurs and is divided into three shorter epochs: the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene. It matters because it represents the earliest part of the Cenozoic Era, when mammals began to diversify and dominate Earth's ecosystems following the end of the Cretaceous Period.
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Key facts
- Geologic timespan.name
- Paleogene
- Geologic timespan.color
- Paleogene
- Geologic timespan.time_start
- 66.0
- Geologic timespan.time_end
- 23.04
- Geologic timespan.image_map
- Mollweide Paleographic Map of Earth, 45 Ma (Lutetian Age).png
- Geologic timespan.caption_map
- A map of Earth as it appeared 45 million years ago during the Paleogene Period, Eocene Epoch
- Geologic timespan.timeline
- Paleogene
- Geologic timespan.name_formality
- Formal
- Geologic timespan.alternate_spellings
- Palaeogene, Palæogene
- Geologic timespan.celestial_body
- earth
- Geologic timespan.usage
- Global (ICS)
- Geologic timespan.timescales_used
Article
26 sectionsContents
- Geology
- Stratigraphy
- Paleocene
- Eocene
- Oligocene
- Palaeogeography
- Alpine–Himalayan orogeny
- Alpine orogeny
- Zagros Mountains
- Himalayan orogeny
- South East Asia
- Atlantic Ocean
- North Atlantic Large Igneous Province
- Americas
- North America
- South America
- Caribbean
- Pacific Ocean
- Hawaii hotspot
- Antarctica
- Red Sea and East Africa
- Climate
- Flora and fauna
- See also
- References
- External links
The Paleogene Period ( ; also spelled Palaeogene or Palæogene) is a geologic period and system that spans 43 million years from the end of the Cretaceous Period Ma (million years ago) to the beginning of the Neogene Period Ma. It is the first period of the Cenozoic Era, the tenth period of the Phanerozoic and is divided into the Paleocene, Eocene, and Oligocene epochs. The earlier term Tertiary Period was used to define the time now covered by the Paleogene Period and subsequent Neogene Period; despite no longer being recognized as a formal stratigraphic term, "Tertiary" still sometimes remains in informal use. Paleogene is often abbreviated "Pg", although the United States Geological Survey uses the abbreviation "" for the Paleogene on the Survey's geologic maps.
Much of the world's modern vertebrate diversity originated in a rapid surge of diversification in the early Paleogene, as survivors of the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event took advantage of empty ecological niches left behind by the extinction of the non-avian dinosaurs, pterosaurs, marine reptiles, and primitive fish groups. Mammals continued to diversify from relatively small, simple forms into a highly diverse group ranging from small-bodied forms to very large ones, radiating into multiple orders and colonizing the air and marine ecosystems by the Eocene. Birds, the only surviving group of dinosaurs, quickly diversified from the very few neognath and paleognath clades that survived the extinction event, also radiating into multiple orders, colonizing different ecosystems and achieving an extreme level of morphological diversity. Percomorph fish, the most diverse group of vertebrates today, first appeared near the end of the Cretaceous but saw a very rapid radiation into their modern order and family-level diversity during the Paleogene, achieving a diverse array of morphologies.