Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Cretaceous world
- 3 The Cenozoic world
- 4 Calcareous nannoplankton and global climate change
- 5 Phenotypic response of foraminifera to episodes of global environmental change
- 6 The response of planktonic foraminifera to the Late Pliocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation
- 7 The response of Cretaceous cephalopods to global change
- 8 Global change and the fossil fish record: the relevance of systematics
- 9 Response of shallow water foraminiferal palaeocommunities to global and regional environmental change
- 10 Intrinsic and extrinsic controls on the diversification of the Bivalvia
- 11 Global events and biotic interaction as controls on the evolution of gastropods
- 12 Algal symbiosis, and the collapse and recovery of reef communities: Lazarus corals across the K–T boundary
- 13 Changes in the diversity, taxic composition and life-history patterns of echinoids over the past 145 million years
- 14 Origin of the modern bryozoan fauna
- 15 Angiosperm diversification and Cretaceous environmental change
- 16 Cenozoic evolution of modern plant communities and vegetation
- 17 Leaf physiognomy and climate change
- 18 Biotic response to Late Quaternary global change – the pollen record: a case study from the Upper Thames Valley, England
- 19 The Cretaceous and Cenozoic record of insects (Hexapoda) with regard to global change
- 20 The palaeoclimatological significance of Late Cenozoic Coleoptera: familiar species in very unfamiliar circumstances
- 21 Amphibians, reptiles and birds: a biogeographical review
- 22 Paleogene mammals: crises and ecological change
- 23 Response of Old World terrestrial vertebrate biotas to Neogene climate change
- 24 Mammalian response to global change in the later Quaternary of the British Isles
- 25 Human evolution: how an African primate became global
- 26 The biotic response to global change: a summary
- References
- Index
3 - The Cenozoic world
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 August 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of contributors
- Preface
- 1 Introduction
- 2 The Cretaceous world
- 3 The Cenozoic world
- 4 Calcareous nannoplankton and global climate change
- 5 Phenotypic response of foraminifera to episodes of global environmental change
- 6 The response of planktonic foraminifera to the Late Pliocene intensification of Northern Hemisphere glaciation
- 7 The response of Cretaceous cephalopods to global change
- 8 Global change and the fossil fish record: the relevance of systematics
- 9 Response of shallow water foraminiferal palaeocommunities to global and regional environmental change
- 10 Intrinsic and extrinsic controls on the diversification of the Bivalvia
- 11 Global events and biotic interaction as controls on the evolution of gastropods
- 12 Algal symbiosis, and the collapse and recovery of reef communities: Lazarus corals across the K–T boundary
- 13 Changes in the diversity, taxic composition and life-history patterns of echinoids over the past 145 million years
- 14 Origin of the modern bryozoan fauna
- 15 Angiosperm diversification and Cretaceous environmental change
- 16 Cenozoic evolution of modern plant communities and vegetation
- 17 Leaf physiognomy and climate change
- 18 Biotic response to Late Quaternary global change – the pollen record: a case study from the Upper Thames Valley, England
- 19 The Cretaceous and Cenozoic record of insects (Hexapoda) with regard to global change
- 20 The palaeoclimatological significance of Late Cenozoic Coleoptera: familiar species in very unfamiliar circumstances
- 21 Amphibians, reptiles and birds: a biogeographical review
- 22 Paleogene mammals: crises and ecological change
- 23 Response of Old World terrestrial vertebrate biotas to Neogene climate change
- 24 Mammalian response to global change in the later Quaternary of the British Isles
- 25 Human evolution: how an African primate became global
- 26 The biotic response to global change: a summary
- References
- Index
Summary
INTRODUCTION
The Cenozoic represents the last 65 million years of the Earth's history, during which time there were major changes in the distribution of continents, land-surface area and oceanic basins as the Earth's plates evolved towards their present configuration. These plate tectonic processes account for the overall deterioration in global climate throughout the Cenozoic from the relatively warm and sea-ice-free Cretaceous and Early Eocene, to the Quaternary icehouse world. This change in global climate is manifest in biotic changes and as a series of stepwise changes in, for example, the oxygen, carbon, strontium and osmium stable isotopes, together with other proxy chemical and geological data (Fig. 3.1).
Once icehouse conditions were established, the high-frequency climate record of glacials and interglacials, and of stadials and interstadials, is best explained by Milankovitch cyclicity. However, higher frequency global climate change on a sub-Milankovitch scale is manifest as millennial, century, decadal, annual and even intra-annual changes. Such very high frequency events are best appreciated in the Quaternary record.
This chapter summarizes the principal changes that took place during the Cenozoic, and considers some of the processes that drove the changes.
CENOZOIC PLATE TECTONICS AND PALAEOGEOGRAPHY
The Cenozoic witnessed the continuing break-up of the supercontinent of Gondwana, the continuing widening of the Atlantic Ocean, the closure of Tethys and the opening of many marginal basins in the western Pacific Ocean.
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- Biotic Response to Global ChangeThe Last 145 Million Years, pp. 20 - 34Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 2000
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